A growling red mustang cuts into the scene with Popa Chubby behind the wheel. His colossal tattooed body seems to fill the car's interior as he cruises past the vast scenery, punching a fist into the air. Whether irony was intended is another question, but one thing is clear - Popa Chubby's video for Sally Likes to Run is unashamedly 'ROCK'.

The Mustang, the clapboard house and Chubby himself epitomise the qualities we associate with American classic rock - boldness, vastness and, much like the purr of his Mustang - deeply visceral.

Popa Chubby's latest album, Deliveries Afterdark, idolises this big-lick rock sound. Huge riffs run through the majority of its tracks like waves - most notably in Set You Free.

Speaking of Sally Likes to Run's American iconography, Ted Horowitz, aka Popa Chubby, says: "I'm a fucking American - I'm happy to be an American - I just wish we had a different president. I love my car - it's an old Mustang. It was deliberate (that I was driving a Mustang in a song about Sally]. It's an homage to my car and I also wanted to rewrite Mustang Sally."

The titanic, Bronz-born New Yorker seldom strays from this ethos. Big licks permeate Deliveries Afterdark like waves, the clincher track being Set You Free - the type of track that would resonate well with a rebellious mind or a seventies anti-establishment film (think Dazed and Confused). It's huge riff dominates the song - it is raw, catchy and fun.

But while riff-led rock is Popa Chubby's signature sound, there are anomalies on the album. Godfather is a surf-guitar version of The Godfather's theme tune. Speaking of the track Horowitz says: "It just happened - the great part of being alive and being an artist is that shit just happens and you can go 'ha ha that worked." Other anomalies include NYC 1977 2008, a medley of samples from famous songs including Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side to Snoop Doggy Dogg's Gin and Juice. Horowitz replaces Snoop Dogg's lyrical theme of women and money with tales of a white man singing the blues. One wonders how seriously Horowitz is taking himself but then, speaking of his Sally Likes To Run video, Horowitz says: "It's a video so you try and dress it up a bit and act silly. I guess we're just having a good time."

Popa Chubby's image is analagous with his sound - simultaneously brash, bold and coded. Huge boiler-suit style dungarees reveal a t-shirt showing George Bush as the devil. "I was definitely going for something with the overalls," says Horowitz. "I was trying to go for a certain look. I could wear leather pants and velvet frock coat and sunglasses and come out and be a big old pratt of a rock star (but] it's not me."

"I do have leather pants but they're really hot. If you look at what I'm wearing there's definitely a certain image I am trying to convey. I'm wearing a shirt that show George Bush as the devil. And then I'm wearing the overalls and then I'm driving the Mustang and these are all symbols of the working man. The people. The Ford Mustang was the people's car. It wasn't a Ferrari. You know. It's the car of the people."

The idea of the working man is the pivot of Horowitz's music and image. "Really when it comes down to it I'm proud to be a working man. I'm proud to be one of the people. I'm proud to be the man of the people. I used to have this little old Italian Grandmother and she used to have an expression for people who thought they were better than everybody else: 'They think their shit doesn't stink.' That really stuck with me."

His Grandmother's insightful ethos has indeed stuck with Horowitz: "The image I was going for - coming from a punk rock background, and even blues man, was really about getting up there and doing your thing. This was really common music for common people. You sometimes hear about these bands with a big buzz and you think 'what the fuck was that?' So it's like: let the music do the talking."


Popa Chubby plays at the Boardwalk on May 17.