Butch Walker And The Black Widows

Butch Walker has always been willing to tailor his look and sound to the music of the moment, but unfortunately the moment has always seemed just a little past him. His hair-metal band, SouthGang, hit just a little too late for solid butt-rock like “Tainted Angel” to have an impact, and his buzz-bin-ready pop-rock group, Marvelous 3, probably deserved to have its legitimately hooky “Freak Of The Week” turn into a mega-hit. His Ryan Adams/Wilco phase —2010’s I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart—didn’t garner airplay, so Walker upped the tempo for August release The Spade (his second release with The Black Widows). The mainstream-pop album features “Summer Of ’89,” a completely necessary ode to Bryan Adams.

Updated 10/03/2011