Fireworks

With its opening chant of “You don’t need maps / when you know where the sidewalk cracks,” Fireworks’ “Detroit” makes it abundantly clear that the Motor City pop-punks aren’t about to launch into their personal “The Big Three Killed My Baby.” Whereas the city’s history as a manufacturing hub has inspired countless other Detroit-born rockers to play off of the industrial clangor and sludgy by-products of now-shuttered automotive plants, Fireworks takes an optimistic cue from Henry Ford (and, by extension, Motown Records), seeking inspiration in technical proficiency, sleekness, and swiftness. The result is a punchier, crunchier version of The Get Up Kids’ hymns to post-adolescent angst welded to blue-collar camaraderie.

Updated 08/23/2010