Mario Escovedo once told me that he wanted the Dragons to sound like a gang of shit-faced, pissed-off mariachis chasing the garbage truck at five in the morning after an all-night bender. And on the Dragons' fourth Junk Records release, ROCK N' ROLL KAMIKAZE, Escovedo has realized much of his vision. But even though KAMIKAZE starts and stops with a requisite Rolling Stones/New York Dolls-style strut and stagger, the record is all heart around the middle. As poignantly crafted songs like "C'mon" and "Crying" prove, beneath the helpless veneer of every self-destructive blues rocker lie the daydreams of a hopeless romantic. "I feel alone sometimes and I never have a reason/My voices say that I'm a star and I believe it/I like to drink a lot but that's alright," Escovedo self-effacingly sings on KAMIKAZE's key track, "Like It's a Bad Thing." With ROCK N' ROLL KAMIKAZE, Escovedo and the Dragons have accomplished exactly what they set out to do and somehow achieved a whole lot more.