If you're wondering what the young freaks in OKC are doing these days, come on in. Spinning a psychedelic sheen on old-school minimalist emo (think Mineral), some fear takes that sparsely-populated punk sound and takes it nominally into shoegaze territory.

some fear some fear (Rite Field Records)

Nominally because there is a hazy scrim over the sound. But the music itself is very much that languid, laconic post-punk that enthralled those of us exhausted by the 90s. There is, of course, a connection to Superchunk and especially Portastatic in the plain-spoken way these songs are written and performed. But the details are different.

I detect the slightest nod to Beck as well. This isn't hipster stuff, and it's hardly catchy, but there is a certain shorthand to the rhythms that grabs my ear. More interestingly, some fear tends to run screaming from whatever groove it establishes (oh, so Mineral . . .). But there are the occasional anthemic squalls and some lovely noise in general.

A nice update on a sound that does seem to be coming back around. I saw a kid in a (new) Mineral t-shirt last month, which surprised me much more than the Snapcase shirts that are everywhere. I guess anyone can foster a trend. This much I know: some fear will never be a trend. But these tight songs loosely wound are truly spectacular. Music for lying down on the yellow stripe of a highway in the middle of the day.

Jon Worley