Ultimate Fakebook

“Are you ready to rock?” Ultimate Fakebook fans know already that “It’s not a question, baby,” but a command. And damn it all if there’s only one chance left to receive the rhetorical rock communion offered in “Brokyn Needle,” from 2000’s This Will Be Laughing Week. The band is pulling into the garage for good after eight years, three full-length albums and uncountable miles on the road. Guitarist and vocalist Bill McShane, bassist Nick Colby and drummer Eric Melin have never left much doubt about their influences: classic pop-rock by way of the bombastic, straight-up rock and roll of the ’70s and the hair metal of the decade after. Unlike its nerdy counterparts, though, Ultimate Fakebook was hardly guilty of aping another man’s guilty pleasures out of irony. Instead, it was always about nothing but good times, as if the trio still would have spent the past eight years doing the same thing even if nobody cared. Thus, let the book of rock teach future scene scholars that Ultimate Fakebook rocked both strong and admirably for the sake of rocking. And shall we forever hold these three words in mind: “Real drums forever!”