“We started as homies making music and had no plans to be a band [or] perform live. It was two dudes and whoever was in the room with us,” says Brian Garth, guitarist of Vegas rock band Black Camaro. Now, “it’s like it’s almost back to square one,” he says.

Black Camaro surprised local music fans on Christmas day with the release of latest album The Last Menagerie, available now at bandcamp.com with a “name your amount” price tag. From “(There’s a) Narc in Lorenzi Park” to “Convergence of the Twain,” the record feels nomadic, rooted in the dust, dirt and Las Vegas’ transient nature.

Seated next to Garth inside the Beat, singer Tom Miller says, “Things sound further back than on our last record. We had a chunk of songs and we just chose the lonely, far-off [ones]. It’s very earthy.” Between recording sessions at Digital Insight and at their own homes (officially credited as Haverstick’s B Room and Black Tahiti), the group recorded the majority of the album in about a week, allowing for the rawness of a live record, yet just enough time for Menagerie to feel like a complete work. “We met each other in the four-track cassette world. There’s a particular sound that you get, all these clicks and pops and snaps and ugly hissing sounds. There’s all these sound effects and anomalies that occur—that kinda was our inspiration,” Garth says.

The Last Menagerie is a perfect album to play while roaming the streets of Vegas, but it’s also a record that deserves to be listened to and explored on its own.