"I mean, who's going to write a song about Judge Reinhold?" asks Matthew Mischief, drummer for The Anderson Stingrays. The Anderson Stingrays is a relatively new local pop-punk trio that adheres to the sacred rule of three chords, speed, and lyrics that don't make you sit down and think. They want you to get up and get down with songs like "Judge Reinhold" or "Rock 'n' Roll Party In Space," which, according to guitarist-singer Aaron Stingray is, "Just a good rock 'n' roll song about wanting to have a rock 'n' roll party in space." No metaphor, no agenda, no bullshit. It is what it is, and it all comes down to the Stingray's tried and true recipe: "Come up with a song title," he says. "Base it off of that. Throw a 1-4-5 chord progression in there, a repetitive verse, a ‘wuh-oh,' maybe a girl's name, and you have a song."

"We're not trying to reinvent the wheel," says bassist Cale Lunchbox. "We just want to play and make music as accessible as possible. We're not elitist about playing music only for cool people."

But the band is going to get its chance. After seeing The Queers play in Rochester at the Echo-Tone Music parking lot in 2009, a then-bandless Stingray contacted head Queer, Joe Queer.

"I said, ‘Hey, I dig the music, I like to play the same style.' And he said he wanted to hear some demos," says Stingray.

Stingray got busy quick-like and laid down some tunes to tape and e-mailed them to Queer. Queer dug it. Stingray found himself in the position a lot of young punk bands dream of: getting the thumbs-up from somebody big in the game. He just needed a band - a band that had prospects before it existed.

"Joe was like, ‘Hey, I want to record you when you get a band together,'" Stingray says. Stingray and Lunchbox had already begun working together when Mischief came along. The band hammered out a dozen originals, then hammered down to Atlanta to record for three days with Queer at The Factory Studios. Three days later "Rock 'n' Roll Party In Space" was done. It's a tightly wound platter that has punk energy and irreverence, but also a certain degree of that transistor-radio pop that punk set out to revive in the first place.

The Anderson Stingrays celebrated the release of "Rock 'n' Roll Party In Space" this summer with the wrong CD. The band excitedly tore into the shipment of discs only to discover the manufacturer had swapped theirs with a band from New Jersey called Viking Viking Viking, which was anxiously awaiting its CDs while on The Warped Tour. But in true punk-rock style, The Anderson Stingrays even considered selling the other band's CDs at the show.

"But they were, like, progressive metal," Mischief says. "And their fans wouldn't have been happy with ours."

Now, with the new album in tow, the band is trying to get a foothold on the home front with likeminded Rochester punk rockers Stolen Bikes and The Emersons. It is also heading off to Watchmen Studios in Lockport to record a song to be featured on a Screeching Weasel tribute CD.

The boys in the band also want to hit the road to elsewhere for some rock 'n' roll adventure, to get the music out there, and to meet Marty.

"We have an unofficial super fan in North Carolina," says Lunchbox. "Marty White. As soon as we had an internet presence of any sort, he was the first guy that found us and became a fan."

"Yeah," Mischief says, considering the group's other supporter. "And that drunk guy at Monty's Krown."

The Anderson Stingrays

myspace.com/theandersonstingrays