Album Reviews

THE NEW YORK REL-X
Sold Out of Love
(TKO)
The song titles and disturbing cover art may lead one to believe that Big Apple punk rock crew New York Rel-X celebrates nihilism and despair. One listen, however, reveals that bit of conclusion-jumping to be horseshit. Tunes like "No Way Out," "Sorrow is a Prison" and "It's All Wasted" may seem defeatist at first, but listen more carefully: these are self-confident shouts of defiance, refusals to give in to the worst conditions, be they corporeal or spiritual. On top of everything else, they're damn tuneful. "No More Tears," you say? Goddamn right. Michael Toland [buy it]

JENNIFER O'CONNOR
The Color and the Light
(Red Panda)
The Color and the Light is the follow-up to Jennifer O'Connor's critically popular self-titled debut. O'Connor's voice bellows deep and sorrowful, clinging to loosely arranged guitars. The first track, "Beg or Borrow Days," is a contrarian in terms of the rest of the disc. Uptempo and hopeful, it's only a smokescreen of what's to come. After that, The Color and the Light is sort of void of both. Unless, of course, sadness is a color. O'Connor does have a way with words, stripping the lyrics down and letting the spaces between speak for themselves. Lance Looper [buy it]

RAT CAT HOGAN
We're Bicoastal
(Skrocki)
Herbert Bergal, the lead singer for Rat Cat Hogan, seems to whisper through most of this disk. Not cool-guy whispering, but more like the whispering you do when you're not sure of the next line in the song you are trying to karaoke. The good news is that Bergal seems to snap out of it about halfway through the album. This is the eighth Rat Cat Hogan disc and supposedly the first with decent production. Upping the production value for these types of bands usually masks bad songs. Not the case with We're Bicoastal. Producer Robbie Skyrocket doesn't blow anything out too much and fans of the band will appreciate the intimate sound of this record. It just sounds like there is a lot Bergal is holding back. Let us have it, man. Lance Looper

AMY RAY
Prom
(Daemon)
Prom is the second record from punk-pop diva Amy Ray and toes the line between making a statement and just rocking for the sake of it. Ray's gravely, masculine voice stands out and adds a dose of honesty to the lyrics about gender identity and homophobia. Prom is a look at rebellion through the eyes of the artist and the result is a diluted point of view. Ray takes a calculated position on the topic of women in punk, enlisting the talents of other girly rockers like guitarist Jody Bleyle and former Beastie Boys drummer Kate Schellenbach. The result is a soft-core punk album, but don't hold its subtlety against it. Lance Looper [buy it]

SOLLY
Get It Wrong It's Alright
(Zounds Sounds)
Solly leader Marc Solomon has slung strings for a few alternative rock outfits, most notably Tommy Stinson's Perfect. Solly continues in the Perfect tradition of doling out nugget after nugget of high-energy guitar pop, with Solomon's melodic smarts and gritty voice leading the way. There's a rootsy edge as well to some of the tracks (like "Dip in the Pool") that's a testament to Solomon's Texas heritage. Of course, it's the excellent writing and exuberant performances of tunes like "Welcome Down," "Worth It?" and the ballad "All That" that rule here. Very cool. Michael Toland [buy it]

THE STELLA LINK
mystic jaguar…ATTACK!!!!
(Ascetic)
Wow, is 90s nostalgia here already? OK, that's more than a little unfair; the alternative rock sound the Stella Link favors—a mix of shoegazer dynamics, postpunk melody and heavy rock aggression—hardly took over the universe, even for a second, so it's not like the band is strip-mining familiar territory. Especially when it does what it does so darn well—just check out the powerhouse "Behold! The Hornless Unicorn" and the euphoric instrumental "Ice Machine" for an example of how to sculpt beautiful washes of sound with guitars as tools. A side note: this is the best album title I've read in a dog's age. Michael Toland [buy it]

SUPER HEAVY GOAT ASS
60,000 Years
(Arclight)
With a name like Super Heavy Goat Ass, you know you're not getting bossa nova, right? This Austin quartet does the beer bong boogie by burgling the best bits from the usual sources: Sabbath, Foghat, ZZ Top, etc. Russell Abbott's angry bark and spitfire lead guitar takes point over the rumble of the rhythm section, like a machine gun mounted on a tank. I'm not sure SHGA really stands out from the pack of howling wolves currently invading clubs right now, but it's at least a guaranteed good time. Michael Toland

SWEATMASTER
TomTom Bullet
(Bad Afro)
If you think Queens of the Stone Age are getting too slick for their own good, turn your attention to Sweatmaster. The Finnish trio mines much the same rock & roll vein of its third album: a song-based approach, hard rock dynamics that stay a safe distance from metal, catchy melodies. The difference is that Sweatmaster's gerbil never stops working that wheel; the energy level isn't unlike that of a toddler high on Captain Crunch and BoohBah. TomTom Bullet crackles with hooks and power, and the singer sounds like he's having more fun than should be legal. Michael Toland

UNIVERSAL HALL PASS
Mercury
(Sneaky)
Songwriter Melissa R. Kaplan's interest in Bulgarian and Middle Eastern music suffuses Mercury, her first album using the Universal Hall Pass moniker. She weaves those unmistakable minor-key melodies into her electronica-based pop ballads for a brew that's sweet enough to be instantly accessible but just exotic enough to raise an eyebrow. As nice as cuts like "Six-Step Dragon" and the witty "Tutelary Genius" are, though, the highlight is the enigmatic, beautiful and mostly a cappella "Katrinah Josephina." The guitar-pop fluff of "Special Agent," however, seems to have wandered in from someone else's album. Michael Toland [buy it]

WAMMO
Lowriders on the Storm
(Spanks-a-Lot)
Asylum Street Spankers co-leader/rock poet Wammo finally makes the leap to actual rock songs on his fourth album Lowriders on the Storm. A decade in the Spankers has turned him into a fairly accomplished singer; combined with his eclectic musical interests and unabashed love of words, this makes tunes like "Hey Hey," "Drowning at the Oasis" and the title track (a covers medley that seems like a gimmick but is actually a clever lesson in the ways rock recycles itself) more entertaining than a barrel of crack-addicted Monkees. That said, the clear standout is "Mulletica," a hilarious spoken-word piece that makes a proposed change in personal appearance into a lifestyle manifesto as only Wammo can. Smartass rockers are a dime-a-dozen, but nobody else uses words as weapons in the culture wars as irreverently as Wammo. Michael Toland [buy it]

WE SHOULD RUN
No Metaphor
(We Should Run)
We Should Run take the classic power trio sound out for a spin on its three-song debut No Metaphor. That classic sound, by the way, has more to do with Husker Du than Grand Funk Railroad, though you might detect a tiny bit of Rush in some of the twists and turns. Regardless, the hooks in the tunes and the passion in guitarist Jonah Kim Rivera's delivery should be all the impetus you need to give We Should Run a listen. Michael Toland

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Friends and Lovers: Songs of Bread
(Badman)
The indie rock community's need to rehabilitate the catalog of 70s soft rockers is something I don't really understand (who's next, Cat Stevens?), but a tribute album is a tribute album is a tribute album. This collection of Bread covers is the usual jumble of solid hits and wide misses that has as much to do with interpretation as material. There are moments sublime (Jon Auer's "Games of Magic," which is as much a nod to 60s Bee Gees as to Bread) and awful (the Call and Response's Karen Carpenter-does-samba interpretation of "Baby, I'm-a Want You," not exactly Bread's highest peak to begin with), brilliantly odd (Paula Frazer's indie rock dirge take on "Everything I Own") and simply baffling (the Holy Sons' drum machine pisstake—at least I hope it's a pisstake—of "Last Time"). And since when can you take Cake at face value on anything, let alone on a song like "Guitar Man?" One thing you can say about Bread, though, regardless of your opinion of either the originals or these covers: these are some damned indelible melodies. Michael Toland [buy it]