The same Dave Allen that was present at the birth of Gang of Four, Shriekback and King Swamp. And, not coincidentally, the same Dave Allen that runs World Domination.

The liners contain a screed by Fred Mills that first excoriates the whole music industry, and then proceeds to give a typical "industry" review (with masturbatory accolades, etc.) to this album and the genius of said Dave Allen. Much more interesting is Allen's own commentary on the world, his work and the future of music. It's still a little pretentious, but at least it's not annoying.

But both of these lengthy discourses miss the point of this album, which, to use part of the name, is pure joy. Yeah, it's what us yanks call "Brit Pop", but not nearly so idiosyncratic as Blur or the Fall. More like the best moments of Elvis Costello or (duh) Gang of Four. The lyrics are pointed and often cynical, but the happy nature of the music serves up the vitriol with a splash of sugar. Like I said, this is Brit pop.

And a great example of such stuff. Highly enjoyable, with sing-along tunes and a beat made for putting the top down. Allen may be 40, but he still understands how to make a cool album: just do it.

Fuzzy, bass-heavy pop stuff. With just enough of that Seattle operatic whine to remind you where these folks are from.

The guitar work is rather reminiscent of the tremolo-laden sound Stone Gossard had on the Mother Love Bone album. Wild and loopy and stuff. Not an unattractive bit.

But after a while, the stuff starts to drone (and there are only two songs here). You want to yell "Time to kick ass boys! Let it go!". But the sound just keeps rolling and rolling and rolling...

And it's done. Not a terrible ride, but those last spins were kinda monotonous.

It's always nice to hear Dave Smalley's voice, wherever it might be.

As usual, there is a new member (Danny Westman on drums), but the rest of the line-up from Punkrockacademyfightsong remains, and that continuity has helped the songwriting and cohesion immensely.

Where the last album was a real mess (and a big letdown from Blue), All Scratched Up! exudes a nice amount of punk attitude and some real moments of pop glory. The band has finally caught up with Smalley's voice.

A cool return to form. I was kinda apprehensive about this when it showed up, but I'm always happy to be pleasantly surprised by the quality of an album. Perhaps this incarnation of DBL will stick around long enough to make an epochal statement. Next time, perhaps.

I had the Haywood track ("Trophy Case") on the 33 1/3 like it said, and it sounded terrible. I think it's supposed to be 45. At that speed, the band is a nice representation of what folks are calling emo-core (or what I just like to call pop). Kinda minimalist as that sort of thing goes, a stripped and slowed-down version of what the Treepeople were so good at.

The song doesn't really go anywhere, but it's pretty cool where it stands.

And the Mariner Nine actually sounds normal at 45, so I'd advise playing it there. Two songs, "Rocket" and "Orpding" (don't ask me what that second one means). "Rocket" has more of an anthemic pop thing going on (you could compare to Superchunk, but this is much more mellow), still rather cool. "Orpding" has a odd voiceover, with sloppier music backing. It's not really long enough to worry about

None of these songs are really great, but all three have a nice, understated appeal. The two songs ("Orpding" is about like its title) would be great tracks on a cool album, but don't quite have the presence to kick this 7" over the top. Still, some fine work.

Perfect music for a single. Uptempo stuff with just enough of that punk rawkishness the kids love so much these days.

And a mastery of that mystical thing the riff. Huffy simply rips through space and time with that guitar sound, and no prisoners are taken.

The perfect sound for summer, somewhere between Minneapolis and San Diego sound-wise (which means they go very well with Uncle Joe's Big Ol' Driver, who I designated last year's "Band of Summer"). And since I live in Florida and summer is a month away, I'm all set. This puppy is hitting a tape and will be cranked out of my deck for months to come.

In all honesty, this is simply fun stuff that is too cheery to get out of your head. Two really fine tunes on one little piece of vinyl. The reason God invented the guitar.

Not exactly folk, at least as far as the music goes. But Ray Kirsch's lyrics are rife with songwriteritis, where the product is stuff that sounds way too overwritten. When the lyrics fit together well, the music also seems to find that groove.

But when it doesn't, the whole conglomeration of cool instrumentation can get painfully disjointed. Kinda like those guys who play guitar on the street corner. Most of them have one or two really good songs in them, but you have to wade through the other hundred before you find them.

A lot of these songs fit in the "quirky acoustic pop" category, with the bouncy beats and almost clever lyrics that define that category. And the band does not sound comfortable in that mode. On more country-tinged tunes like "Dim the Wine", though, everything seems to click. The lyrics are simpler, and the diverse sounds of the band mesh together really nicely.

Many nice moments, enough to make me like the album. Perhaps more clubbing would remove some of the excesses and really refine the sound. Or the band could quit the pop pretensions and just sink into the realm of country music currently defined by the Palace Brothers. Anything that helps the players understand what's going on would be a benefit.

Cool punk-pop (or emo-core, if you prefer that designation). Distortion-laden hooks with nice guitar lines. Crank has found a veritable gold mine of these acts.

And Mineral keeps the standard held high. While not deviating much from the formula (spare guitar riff, add hoarse vocals, add bass and drums, build to a climax; start all over again), these "pizza guys gone rock" do seem to have a good handle on the concept.

This is one of those albums I like a lot, but I have no idea what else to say. If you like this sort of sound (and it is hip these days), you'll love the way Mineral bends the songs. If you don't know what I'm talking about, well, you've heard of Jawbox, right? Them folks (along with the Treepeople, I guess) are the progenitors of this sound.

Sorry to get sidetracked. This is a cool album. Nice noise, keeps me happy. Wish I could say more. Good albums sometimes handcuff whatever meager writing talent I have. Would that I could do better.

Part one of a New Sweet Breath single overdose in this issue:

"Blessed" sounds, to my ear, like a young Tom Petty trying to do "that alternative pop thing". Which is pretty cool, really. Hook-laden, catchy jingles merged with that popular veneer of distortion and crappy production values.

The flip, "Back to Blue", is astonishingly short, and just as sweet. Good enough, though the production washed out some cool guitar work, and the vocals just plain sucked (sound-wise, anyway). It's okay to be a garage band and still have some semblance of production savvy. Still, the tunes are alright.

Punchier production than the Major Appliances single, but still muddled. Three songs here, all really short. Odd, when you consider that the band isn't really punk at all.

"Silka" takes the a-side all by itself. While clocking in at around two minutes, it still manages to really impress. Uptempo tune with squealing guitars (you can actually hear them on this single), but the vocals are still terribly fucked up.

"Late" and "News to Me" comprise the flip. Both are cool, catchy tunes that would be immensely improved if the band decided it wanted even reasonably clear vocals. The production of the band, as noted earlier, is much better here, but the vocals are incomprehensible. I like some distortion as much as the next fuck, butthis is silly. These are great songs. Wish I could make them out better.

Back solely on Roadrunner, after a couple years spent touring, compiling side projects (which were better than Chaos A.D.). The time off seems to have done a world of good.

As on Arise, the band incorporates some traditional Brazilian music into some songs, even utilizing musicians from a Brazilian tribe. Wonder if Paul Simon wishes to compare results of the same search?

While I heard that Chaos would be much more industrial, the final, satisfying results of that experimentation can be found here. The rhythm section has an addictive feel, heavy and yet catchy, unlike the plodding work last time out.

It's been years since Sepultura was really a death metal band, but Roots simultaneously pulls the band back and pushes it forward. In all the right ways. I haven't heard playing this animated and spontaneous-sounding from these guys since Beneath the Remains. And yet, this is the sharpest production of a Sepultura album ever, with all sorts of musical influences bandied about.

The result is an attack of vehemence unheard of since Fudge Tunnel's The Complicated Futility of Ignorance. A real metal album for the thinking listener. Not only can you crank up the volume and bash your brains out, you can also sit back and appreciate this album as a true work of art. Fun and intelligent. Sounds like a recipe for success.

Given the awesome talent of the band, I think the guys can still do better. Just a matter of tightening here and loosening there. But such matters border on the trivial. This is a whale of an album, deserving of every accolade it can generate.

The main problem with this album is that I reviewed it after the Sepultura album. No chance.

Simple Aggression harkens back to the days when "metal" meant guys playing reasonably catchy songs at high volume. Hair optional.

There are a few concessions to the present: a greater emphasis on rhythm, topical songwriting (as opposed to historical epics) and a grungy bass. The last one gets a "bleah" from me.

Decent enough. The playing is good, and the sound is a fairly decent one. The songs are passable, if rather uninteresting at times. Nothing is dreadful, just dull. And that's a big mistake, because when this sort of music loses its punch, all the shortcomings inherent in traditional metal (silliness chief among them) come to the fore.

Simple Aggression needs to make its songs meaner, nastier and catchier. Everything else is pretty much in place. It's not like the guys have pretensions of high art or anything.

Twins in hooker outfits playing silly, stupid music and singing about chicks, dudes and how stupid the music industry is. Whoa, not a Cycle Sluts from Hell spinoff!!

Probably not, since none of the Cycle Sluts actually played an instrument. And the guitar work on this album is so simple even I could play it (something I don't think I've ever said before.

With enough beers this might be funny. Maybe. Like a case of Milwaukee's Best or something. Long-haired chicks in hot pants may make a nice stage show, but the album is a completely different story. I usually try to give some constructive criticism, but in this case that would be: quit. Don't make me listen to shit like this any more.

Careful readers will note this is my first single-A review ever. It deserves every last bit of that derision. This makes the Cycle Sluts sound talented.

The remixes before the original versions. What an original concept.

Apparently so many folks sent in remixes (seven are featured here, along with a radio mix of "Awaken"), that Chase decided to pump this out as a way of introducing folks to the Society Burning sound. Okay.

I remember this act for its cover of "Stand and Deliver" on the Shut Up Kitty compilation. A cool, distortion-full sound with some nice beat work. You can hear that in these remixes, as well as the personal visions of the folks involved (three from Siebold of Hate Dept., Chad Bishop of Idiot Stare and the collective Apparatus, among others)

And the Siebold remixes are king here. Three totally different versions of the Society Burning sound, all completely ready for the club floor.

I'm not usually terribly excited about remix sets (though there's usually one or two that gets me off). All of these are good, and some are great. I'd have to hear Tactiq (the forthcoming full-length) to really judge this work, but what I hear is damned fine.

A cool radio station (WRAS, Georgia State) has recorded tons of tapes of famous big-name artists, and asks their permission to release the set as a benefit. The cool, big-name artists agree. We get this set.

Folks like G Love (sans the Special Sauce), Lisa Germano, Spearhead, Low Pop Suicide, the Wedding Present and Throwing Muses. A pretty diverse crowd. Mostly (but not all) unplugged. A few unreleased tracks, but mostly stuff you've heard before, if not in this kinda form.

The only real drawback is in the press, which contains some real pretentious quotes from Shachar Oren, who produced this thing. Down boy. It's still just college radio.

A nice set for a good cause. A disc for lay on when you've got company on the porch drinking beer. And some of the best times I had in college were like that. Dig this up and fly.

A big set from perhaps the finest purveyor of hardcore in the U.S. today. I mean, anyone who can claim bands like Snapcase, Earth Crisis and Guilt is a winner in my book.

But all of these tracks are previously released (which is why the rating is lower than it probably should be), so this set is mostly for the folks who are unfamiliar with Victory's lineup. If you even think you like hardcore, you should already be into the bands on Tony's label. If not, then pick this up and check it out.

Um, and isn't the cover cool? If you're gonna do one of these things, this is a great way to do it.