Named after a character from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Damone were the right band in all the wrong places – formed in the 2000’s rather than the 80s, hailed from outside Boston but should’ve been from New Jersey, and played post-pop punk that owed more to hair metal than Green Day (“Out Of My Way” may as well have been a Poison cover). That doesn’t stop their second album from being a sharp sugar blast. When they get tough on “Out Here All Night” and “What We Came Here For” you could almost mistake them for Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, and while their acoustic cover of Iron Maiden’s “Wasted Years” doesn’t quite eclipse the original, you’ll believe it’s hard for Noelle LeBlanc to make it through another day.

– Jeff Treppel