Stream: T.S.O.L., ‘Satellites’

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T.S.O.L. (Photo by John Gilhooley)
T.S.O.L. (Photo by John Gilhooley)

“It’s a great time to be making music, to have a voice that can be heard,” veteran rocker Jack Grisham declares. “I’m glad that things look bleak. Political turmoil breeds strength as well as strife.” Indeed, history has borne that out, and squarely in the middle of today’s domestic disorder comes “The Trigger Complex,” the new album from L.A. punk torchbearers T.S.O.L. Which stands for True Sound of Liberty, if you weren’t around for the band’s first barrage of horror-smeared radicalism, mostly in the ’80s. If anything, though, “The Trigger Complex” (out Friday via Rise Records) could use another political screed or three. As it is, the album — T.S.O.L.’s 11th and first since 2009 — thunders with goth-tinged punk, with Grisham, 55, sounding dire and convincing as ever. The album is the work of T.S.O.L. originals Grisham, Ron Emory and Mike Roche, along with longtime keyboardist Greg Kuehn (who was there in the early days and then rejoined the band around 2005) and new drummer Chip Hanna. “I Wanted to See You” and “Satellites” are the first two singles, perfectly meaty and ready for sing-alongs, and doing justice to the catalog of a band that has had an occasionally tumultuous career. See “Sometimes” and “The Right Side” for added nourishment.

||| Stream: “Satellites” and “I Wanted to See You”

||| Live: T.S.O.L. celebrate their album release with a show Feb. 4 at the Observatory, joined by the Swarves. Tickets.