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The Wannabe Hasbeens, a power quartet from Minneapolis, makes a habit of oxymorons, at least in their presentation: that would be their name, and their debut EP, FORMER TRANS FUTURE VOL. 1. There is nothing contradictory or complicated about their music, however. It’s straight ahead, 1980s -era British guitar rock, full of great, loud wonderful slabs of power chords.

There was a practice at one point in time for a band to stick the legend “Play Loud!” on their release. Though it’s hard sometime to impute motive, it seems that more often than not the effect was to obscure a lack of talent. The Wannabe Hasbeens don’t utilize that slogan; they don’t need to. This is a disc you want to hear at 11 from its opening chords.

FORMER TRANS FUTURE VOL. 1 consists of six tracks; the first three (“Call Your Bluff,” “Gimme Substance,” and “Hey, George Bailey”) just get better and better each time you listen to them, full-blooded, loud rockers played with a sense of dynamics so that even if you have your heads stuck in the amps and your ears are bleeding. “Clean” starts off as one of two obligatory power ballads on the disc, and it’s not a bad tune, not by any means, and picks up about midway through into something a bit more spirited. My own favorite on the disc is “One More Night,” a cleverly inferenced and nuanced track that doesn’t sacrifice the volume. A close second, interestingly enough, is the relatively quiet “Anthem For A Late Bloomer,” the second power ballad on the disc and the better of the two. Of anything on FORMER TRANS FUTURE VOL. 1 it is probably the most likely to be on your local FMer, sounding better than 90 per cent of what they’re playing.

FORMER TRANS FUTURE VOL. 1 is an impressive debut, with six tracks that demonstrate a talent that seems like it runs long and deep. Right now I’d say that anything these gents release would be worth a listen, and more. Recommended.