Includes really nice 12x12 booklet with lyrics, stories and photos.
Rock 'n' roll is the stuff of legends. It's the big stages with a booming sound, the trashy glamour, the almost supernatural guitar solos that can transport you to another realm of existence. It's exciting and fun and at least a little dangerous. But what if someone never reached those big stages? What if they barely made it out of, for example, the DIY and bar circuit of Western Pennsylvania? Does that make them any less of a mythical figure? Listen to any song by Pittsburgh band The Short Dark Strangers & The Shady Motherfuckers, and you'll realize that the answer to that question is an emphatic no. Lead singer Bobby Porter was a rock 'n' roll lifer and that doesn't change even if you've never heard of him before today.

Porter, who died in 2010 from stomach cancer at 59 years old, started playing in bands when he got out of the army back in the early '70s. Best known were Young Lust, Thin White Line, and finally, Short Dark Strangers, all of them based in and around Pittsburgh and Youngstown, Ohio, about an hour away from each other. Those three bands-and really, everything Porter did musically-ran the gamut from punk to rock 'n' roll to soul and back again. Through it all, it's his voice, a beautiful baritone that's so very reminiscent of Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, and other '60s soul singers, that rings out so true and bright over everything.

Although Porter might have died more than a dozen years ago, his spirit is still very much alive. French label Frog Manchu made sure of that when in 2018, they put out a collection of all the Short Dark Strangers music. The album, a double LP, kicks off with 'We're Not Animals,' an absolute scorcher of a track that also serves as an amazing introduction to the group's sound. While the band-which at various points included members of numerous classic Pittsburgh punk acts, including Caustic Christ, Submachine, and more-plays a rocking garage riff, Porter's rich vocals grab you by the throat and don't let go. 'We're not animals,' he sings, 'I won't put down this book just to pull your plow.'