Sahara Hotnights/
Bangs -- Jennie Bomb/Call And Response
Sahara Hotnights, who hail from Sweden and thus lie twice before you're finished speaking their name, are all Les Pauls and Marshall stacks cranked to 10. Despite their advance hype, their music isn't punk, exactly, no more so than "Communication Breakdown" or "Paranoid"; they're heavier than punk, less interested in velocity than in momentum. Jennie Bomb sounds like a Runaways party crashed by Elastica, and what pleasures there are to be found are mostly formal... [more]

As Friends Rust -- Won
I guess it must be something about Gainesville, something in the water, that makes a bunch of dudes get together, grab instruments and say, "hey guys, let's play a blend of melodic post hardcore." I'm sure As Friends Rust went through something like the following exchange... [more]

The Gloria Record -- Start Here
Okay, so any emo kid worth his or her ironic T-shirt is undoubtedly already aware of The Gloria Record's distinguished pedigree, but for the benefit of the uninitiated: the band arose from the ashes of the Great High Kahuna of just about all Texan "emo" bands, Mineral, who rose to mild heights of indie-rock fame with the release of 1995's excellent The Power of Failing and then cemented their place in the pantheon of impassioned guitar rock in 1997 by releasing the brilliant EndSerenading and promptly calling it quits... [more]

Cave In -- "Lost In The Air"/"Lift Off"
I like both versions of Cave In, and to some that may be blasphemy. I liked their earlier Beyond Hypothermia-era ultra-hardcore incarnation, and I wholeheartedly embraced their Jupiter-era transmogrification into melodic, spacey, progressive, post-hardcore-type rock. In fact, I'd venture to say that I like Cave-In v. 2.0 a little more than the older material, mainly because it's a better showcase for how talented and relevant these guys are... [more]

Quix*o*tic -- Mortal Mirror
The superfluously asterisked Quix*o*tic are a band from Washington, D.C., composed of Christina Billotte, formerly of Autoclave and Slant 6, her sister Mira, and some guy named Mick Barr. Both Mira and Mick have also been in bands, but ones of which I've unfortunately never heard. Despite their pedigree, this is not your typical indie group. For one thing, the sisters seem to have a thing for nineteenth century-style clothes. I guess it's high time for the return to fashion of that era, now that I think about it... [more]

Nathan Larson -- Jealous God
Who's the funkiest, blue-eyed soulful-est, rump shakin'-est white boy out there these days? No, not that Timberlake guy (even with Phil Fisher's help on drums -- it's okay, Fish, I understand that it's for the $$$). Nope, not the Har Mar dude either...too much of the "Hey, look at me being ironic!" gimmick for my tastes. Brace yourselves...it's Nathan Larson. Yes, that Nathan Larson... [more]

...And You Wil Know Us by the Trail of Dead -- Source Tags & Codes
I guess I've got a bit of a chip on my shoulder when it comes to "Austin music." It's not even the fault of the many bands and musicians who inhabit the Austin scene, but is more due to the seeming overhyping of any and every bit of music that comes out of our fair sister city. I'm embittered after years of watching incredible Houston bands wallow in obscurity and then die off while any goober with a guitar and a penchant for singing songs about Texas can get a record deal and see their music played in truck commercials on TV... [more]

The Bicycle Thief -- You Come and Go Like a Pop Song
The Bicycle Thief is the latest project of Thelonious Monster's Bob Forrest. I've just gotta say that I love this record. If TM's Beautiful Mess was about Bob in his twentiess, this record is all about him in his thirties. Whereas BM told stories of Flea buying tickets for the gang to see Julio Iglesias, this record talks about having a 12-year-old kid who isn't learning anything at school. These days, Bob would just rather get stoned and watch TV... [more]

Cub Country -- High Uinta High
Remember when "country" wasn't a dirty word? When it was about good songwriting, not pop posturing? Before it became a parody of itself? Jeremy Chatelain does. Most of you know Jeremy from his bass duties in Jets To Brazil, but I've been a fan of his since even before that, when he was the frontman for the criminally underrated post-hardcore supergroup Handsome... [more]

Recover -- Rodeo and Picasso
Okay, so you've surely heard of Recover by now; the Austin band has been heralded many times over as the great white hope of driving emotional rock. They even parlayed all of that positive word-of-mouth into a sweet gig opening up for Bad Religion this past spring. So, if you're one of those people that still hasn't given Recover a listen, you're asking yourself...is it worth all the hype? Pretty much, yeah... [more]

Comet Gain -- Réalistes
I don't entirely get the "movement" part of this; I'll admit that up front. The liner note manifestos on modernism and "A New Cinema" don't really hold much significance to me except as a design statement, adding philosophical weight to the stark black-and-white photos on the sleeve (mostly grainy '60s shots of hipsters smoking cigarettes and what look like French film stars). It all cries out "this is deep thinking, too deep for you to comprehend," which tends to raise my hackles a bit in general... [more]

Noise Ratchet -- Till We Have Faces
When I was given Noise Ratchet's album Till We Have Faces to review, I was eager to hear the music based solely on the magnetic artwork found on and within the album's sleeve. Hoping that the creativity displayed on the outside package would foreshadow what I would hear once I plugged the disc into my stereo, I was pleased with not only what I saw, but also with what I heard... [more]

The Appleseed Cast -- Low Level Owl, Volumes I and II
What do you do when you make a critically-acclaimed, fanboy-approved and generally bad-ass epic concept album? If you're The Appleseed Cast, you follow that puppy up with an even more epic (epic-er?) double concept album and hope that you pull it off. I mean, after Mare Vitalis, there was really no way to go but up, right? To some that would seem like an insurmountable task, but these boys from Lawrence, Kansas, succeed, in spades... [more]

BETTER THAN A KICK IN THE HEAD
NYC TAKEOVER VOLS. 1 & 2
PUNK ROCK STRIKE, VOL. 2
ROCK MUSIC
SMOKING POPES -- TRIBUTE
SONGS WE LEARNED IN TEXAS
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING: A SECOND NATURE RECORDINGS SAMPLER
TURBO'S TUNES

FINDING NEO
NO SOUND: TEX KERSCHEN, SWARM OF
ANGELS/NTX + ELECTRIC SEX