I’ve spent the past two weeks digging “Guts of Steel,” the fine new CD from Brimstone Howl that comes to stores Tuesday.

The release would be news in itself. But it’s even more notable because the Nebraska garage rock quartet’s disc is on Alive Records, one of today’s top indie rock ’n’ roll outlets, and it’s produced by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys.

Clocking in at just under 34 minutes for 12 songs (none longer than 3 minutes 39 seconds), the record is the best rocker that Nebraska’s produced in many a year, taking influences from the first five decades of rock ’n’ roll and giving them a swift, raw kick.

“Heart Attack,” for example, buzzes and burns with punk intensity while it brings to mind Chuck Berry and the ’50s, even as frontman John Ziegler moans: “I put my tail between my legs/and came back to Nebraska,” putting a geographic stamp on the stomp.

“Six and Seven” is a slab of early Rolling Stones R&B with the lyric “I could be hip, I could be cool and never go to Sunday school” reflecting Ziegler’s life as a minister’s son.

Then comes “Cyclone Boy,” a tune that definitely owes something to the Ramones. The smokin’ “I’m A Man” doesn’t have anything to do with the Bo Diddley original, but it’s just as much a statement of masculinity as the pioneering rocker’s classic.

From the shakin’ opener “Bad Seed,” complete with wailing harp, to the closer “One Quick Minute,” Brimstone Howl never backs down. This is scuzzy, greasy, no-holds-barred rock delivered with a frenzy that never gets old and a primal fury that makes it timeless.

“Damned To Judge” is Ziegler’s poke at critics who want to put an ill-fitting label on the band. I’d never do that. To me, Brimstone Howl is a rock ’n’ roll band — no more, no less — and a very, very good one. I’ve thought that since I came across the first incarnation of the group a few years ago while Ziegler was still a University of Nebraska-Lincoln student.

Brimstone Howl played a CD release show in Omaha last night and is preparing to head out on a national tour in support of “Guts of Steel.” With any luck, the boys will stop through Lincoln at some point and we can catch up with them both in interview form and, more importantly, at a local club where they will, without question, rock the house.

Until then, check out the Brimstone Howl video for “M-60” in which they’re dressed in black with masks at www.youtube.com/watch?v=z660NzSVBZY, then head to your friendly neighborhood record store and pick up “Guts of Steel.” It’s propulsive proof that rock ’n’ roll lives in Nebraska and that Brimstone Howl is one great band.

CoCo Montoya at Celebrate Lincoln

Blues guitarist Coco Montoya will headline June’s Celebrate Lincoln Ethnic Festival.

Montoya will take the festival’s 12th and N streets stage at 9 p.m. June 23. A Zoo Bar regular, Montoya is an acclaimed guitarist and solid singer whose reputation on the blues/rock circuit continues to grow and grow.

Opening the Saturday night show will be The Tijuana Gigolos, Lincoln’s Tex-Mex roots rock ’n’ roll outfit. The Gigolos, who are about to release their second album (I’ve heard the unmastered version and it’s good), will take the stage at 7 p.m.

The Friday night festival lineup is Ashanti, a traditional Ghanaian drum and dance group with members from Ghana, Kenya, Sudan and the United States, at 7 p.m. and Seven Nations, a Celtic band, at 9 p.m.

This will be the fourth Celebrate Lincoln festival presented by the Updowntowners and Lincoln Benefit Life. It’s the first Celebrate Lincoln festival with a beefed-up evening entertainment lineup, a move designed, in part, to replace July Jamm, the long-running Updowntowners music-oriented festival that ended last summer.

Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.