Album Reviews

NEUROTIC SWINGERS
French Fries, Guillotine & Love
(Dead Beat)
This album is a throttling, teeth-rattling homage to punk rock of the seventies. Think the Hives, but sharpened to a finer edge. The Swingers, who hail from France, have populated this disk with screaming, pissy lyrics and plenty of decibels. Not angry, just bothered. The highlights on French Fries, Guillotine and Love come with the surprisingly catchiness of the songs. The band clearly knows how to write effective pop songs that lull you into a weird state of toe-tapping to screeching guitars and gravely vocals. Heavy on the guitars, the Swingers have a sound ideally suited for clubs and it may be just by virtue of being loud, but the record has a live feel—which is really the only way punk sounds right. Lance Looper

OM TRIO
globalpositioningrecord
(Black Beauty)
I like the idea of Medeski Martin & Wood, but I've always found the well-regarded trio a bit too clinical, with lots of chops and ideas but little soul. Enter the OM Trio, who take a similar setup—keyboards, bass and drums—and a similar approach—mixing jazz and funk with bits of dub, space rock and psychedelia—and somehow make it much more palatable. More luscious melodies, sexier grooves, tasteful playing and brevity in song lengths make globalpositioningrecord a much more interesting and engrossing disk than anything done by the better-known combo. Tunes like "Romeo," "Shant II" and "Bulbous" make me feel torn between shaking my hips around the office or just grooving on the musicianship. Cool funk/dub cover of Living Colour's "Cult of Personality," too. Michael Toland [buy it]

QUARKSPACE & MATT HOWARTH
Node in Peril
(Eternity's Jest)
Now this is the kind of collaboration I'd like to see more of. Columbus' long-running space rock troop Quarkspace teams up with underground comics star Matt Howarth for a combo pack that's great entertainment value. Node in Peril is the soundtrack to a Howarth comic of the same name, helpfully included in the package. The quartet's distinctive combination of psychedelic improvisation, electronic production and carefully considered overdubbing provides a perfect soundscape for Howarth's amusing science fiction story. Hopefully this will be the first of many such confabs—maybe an animated feature is in the future? Michael Toland [buy it]

PAUL REDDICK
Villanelle
(NorthernBlues)
Paul Reddick does it right, which gives a blues fan hope for a freefalling genre. Writes good songs, sings well, and doesn't let any instrument hog the spotlight for too long. Villanelle, the follow-up to 2002's acclaimed Rattlebag, finds Reddick sans his old band the Sidemen, save for multi-instrumentalist/producer Colin Linden. The songs are stripped down just a bit and even earthier and funkier than on the last CD. He can do purty (the title track), chuggin' ("Luck in Love"), funny ("So Long. Thank You. Goodbye."), gritty ("Six Was the Six"), whatever. You can take 'most all the other blues wannabes and drop 'em in the deep blue sea, 'cause Paul Reddick is the man for me. Brian Briscoe [buy it]

THE RIFFBROKERS
Fix it if you hate it
(Unsmashable)
With a name like the Riffbrokers, you can pretty much guess that you're gonna get a song-oriented band. And you'd be right, as the Seattle combo specializes in catchy, guitar-fueled tunes that perfectly straddle the worlds of American roots rock and Beatlesque power pop. Cuts like "Unbearable Afternoon," "Potholes" and "The Horse on Your Shoulder Patch" burst with hunky hooks and heartfelt melodies; frontman Nick Millward's gritty vox pack the perfect punch. Alliteration aside, the Riffbrokers are the kind of band of which people who equally love melody and guitars dream. Michael Toland

THE SILENT BOYS
Beauty Tips
(Walrus)
Vermont's Silent Boys are what I call a Jack Rabid band. Rabid is, of course, the proprietor of the great rock rag Big Takeover, which has long championed a certain strain of soaring, jangling guitar pop music—think Echo & the Bunnymen, the Chills, the Go-Betweens, even Teenage Fanclub. While you're at it, think the Silent Boys, who cleanly ring in a batch of imminently hummable pop tunes that nod to their forebears without trying on their clothes. "Shades of Blue," "The Gift" and the irresistibly ingratiating "Neil Young" ("I wish I was Neil Young/Then I'd play guitar/And smash up every chord") will find eager ears attached to fans who miss 80s college rock. Jack must love 'em, and that love is well-deserved. Michael Toland

THE CHRIS STAMEY EXPERIENCE
A Question of Temperature
(Yep Roc)
Enough already with the silly band names—we get it, you are impressed with yourself. Now that I hold in my hot little hand the "Chris Stamey Experience," my expectations are set unreasonably high. Stamey, formerly of Sneakers and the dB's, is experimenting with A Question of Temperature. With a voice a little reminiscent of Ben Folds, Stamey delivers muted and willowy love songs. While not exactly an "experience," I found myself hitting repeat on more than one of the tracks. Stamey mixes original material with a couple of pretty cool covers, including "Shapes of Things," originally released by the Yardbirds in the late 60s. The song is surprisingly timely, given the current state of world affairs. A Question of Temperature may not be the breakthrough Stamey is looking for, but it is still a pretty good record. Such a tease. Lance Looper [buy it]

THE VESTIGES
The Promised City E.P.
(Particle Accelerator)
The lyrics on the debut disk by the Vestiges tell a story of expatriates, as the L.A.-based band dwells on its East Coast roots. Songwriter Andy Marcus explores (or is that exploits?) his deep roots in New England for tunes like "A Banner Year" and "Passion and Compassion," his carefully crafted lyrics painting fascinating portraits. The music doesn't live up to the libretto, alas, falling into a fairly colorless roots rock guitar groove. But it's hardly unlistenable, and once the chords catch up to the adverbs, the Vestiges will evolve into something special. Michael Toland

VARIOUS ARTISTS
A Houseguest's Wish
(Words on Music)
A Houseguest's Wish strikes me as an odd project: 19 different indie rock artists covering Wire's "Outdoor Miner." Fortunately, the song, one of Wire's best and most accessible, holds up nicely under the constant barrage. I'm partial to the acoustic versions by Sharron Kraus and Christian Kiefer (who almost turns it into a blues), the instrumental run-through by Should, the fuzz-pop take by Flying Saucer Attack and the singer/songwriter pop version by above the orange trees. Special mention should be made of Typewriter's take, since the band blatantly (and no doubt deliberately) apes Guided By Voices, which serves to underscore GbV bandleader Robert Pollard's debt to postpunk's finest. Only two tracks, Laura Watling's ultra-girlie-twee version and Junetile's noisy electro-scuzz take, don't work for me. A Houseguest's Wish isn't nearly the exercise in tedium one would think such a limited project would be. Michael Toland [buy it]