San Francisco native Matt Jaffe draws on the narrative and mythic landscape of his home state for his debut album California’s Burning. Jaffe and his band The Distractions create music that draws on a punk energy that is also informed by rockabilly and New Wave. Matt Jaffe & The Distractions will release California’s Burning on March 3 and today we premiere “Hellhounds Of Alcatraz” from the forthcoming record.

A number of Jaffe’s influences are reflected in the track, as he tells Relix, “Part of the brilliance of ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ is that it seamlessly combines two of country music’s biggest themes: trains and prison. With Johnny Cash in mind, I wanted ‘Hellhounds Of Alcatraz’ to serve up a similar stew of imagery, with ingredients ranging from prison breaks to canine hunts, from a chase scene in San Francisco to a border crossing in Tijuana, all draped across a backdrop of California Noir. Retroactively, I tell people that this song is our version of Zevon’s ‘Werewolves Of London,’ but really it’s just a musical reimagining of Escape From Alcatraz in which the whole band gets to play Clint Eastwood.”