THE DAMNED THINGS: HEY, MAYBE KEITH BUCKLEY COULD BE THE NEW SINGER FOR ANTHRAX!

The Damned Things have been a source of gossip and interest ever since their formation was announced, even though no one had heard any actual music – ’cause when you have a band with members of Anthrax (Scott Ian and Rob Caggiano), Every Time I Die (Keith Buckley and now Josh Newton), and fucking Fall Out Boy (Joe Trohman and Andy Hurley), well, you’re gonna get people’s attention.

It seems that the band are finally ready to unveil themselves to the world right proper, though, as they’ve posted rough-mixes of two tracks, “We’ve Got a Situation Here” and “Ironiclast,” on their MySpace page in advance of kicking off a mini-tour tonight at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn.

So what’s the verdict?

Well, it sounds like good-but-not-great corporate rock to me. Put another way: these could be Velvet Revolver songs. Maybe this is just the cranky old man in me, but if this what the band is gonna sound like, I probably won’t argue too hard with anyone who thinks they’re tops, but I’d still rather listen to Anthrax or Every Time I Die.

(For the dudes from Fall Out Boy, well, this is a major step up, and, yeah, I’d rather listen to this than Fall Out Boy. But I’d rather listen to a drunken rant from Vince about why the Mets rule and the Yankees suck than listen to Fall Out Boy, so that’s not really any huge accomplishment or whatever.)

All of that being said, I’d like to add Keith Buckley to the list of singers we’d rather see with Anthrax than a certain curly-haired prison bitch. Just sayin’.

I’m not going to the Brooklyn show tonight, a little bit ’cause I got other shit to do and a lotta bit ’cause I don’t care all that much, but if anyone goes, let us know how it was. After that, the band is playing a bunch of European festivals throughout June. Listen to the new tracks and get tour dates here.

-AR