The sun-scorched asphalt of Southern California has a way of baking certain voices into its cracks until they become part of the geography and hearing Jack Grisham and the Life Undone rip through Pieces of the Sun feels like watching a wildfire reclaim a manicured suburb. Grisham has spent the better part of four decades serving as the unpredictable wild card of the Orange County scene but here he sounds less like a ghost of 1981 and more like a man who has finally found a way to weaponize his own history. It is a striking return that avoids the trap of nostalgia by choosing instead to favor a sharp and muscular sort of Alternative Rock that feels dangerously alive.
The backstory of this record reads like a piece of punk rock kismet because it began with a chance meeting at the Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas where Lars Triesch and Grisham were introduced by the iconic photographer Edward Colver.
This is a record for the people who still believe that rock and roll should feel like a secret and a threat and Jack Grisham and the Life Undone have delivered a piece of work that honors his Punk roots while pointing toward a future that is wide open and glowing with heat.
