Tesla

Buttrock CDs are like cheeseburgers and pisswater American beers—reviled by so-called experts, but your average joe can live on a steady diet of ’em and would prefer to do so, given his druthers. Sacramento’s Tesla has long been an ace exponent of quality buttrock: Aerosmith minus the superstar status, or Steven Tyler’s

frou-frou scarves. This 2-CD live set, recorded earlier this year, delivers the meat ’n’ taters—Jeff Keith’s bluesy laryngitic snarl driven home by more amped-up squing-squong guitar leads than a year’s worth of Pontiac commercials courtesy of Frank Hannon and Tommy Skeoch, plus tunes that even after a 12-pack lobotomy you can burp along with. Which spells heaven in some parts, including large areas of Sacto County. It’s got the hits, too. So crank it, fire up a Marlboro red, gun your Z-28 T-top, burn rubber through the drive-thru and hold that butane lighter aloft. All hail!