Rootsy stuff that rarely allows a sheen to accumulate. It's fairly easy to find points of reference, from the Hooters to Tom Petty and plenty of others. There is a faint undercurrent of pretentious (these mostly acoustic tunes are awfully anthemic at times), but it runs together fairly well.

Jeff Zutant has one of those raspy voices that just screams "rock singer", and he uses it to good effect. The songwriting is capable, though a couple steps away from inspired. One of the main problems is a reliance on standard construction, which makes the tunes a bit too predictable.

Of course, pop does as pop wants. I'd pick Blue Yard Garden over Hootie & the Blowfish, Sheryl Crow or whoever else is propagating this sound on MTV these days. But there's still some work to do.

Nicely produced for an unsigned project. The band (listed as producer) left plenty of spaces in the sound, understanding that a listener will fill up the silence with much more than could be recorded. A deft and gentle touch was needed, and the band provided one.

Tripping a bit too far to the commercial side for my general tastes, Blue Yard Garden is still an impressive band with a fine CD.

Further proof of the fertile musical territory surrounding Kansas City, Boys Life rips out a second set of randomly chaotic "emo-core" tunes.

The first set, on Crank!, quite impressed me. This one does no less. Boys Life has utterly left coherence behind on this album, fully embracing the potential wonderment of noise pop. This is not music for a top-down sunny day. But it serves very well with a side of whiskey and water.

And in case you thought the band might revert to its earlier style of paying convention lip service, check out "Twenty Four of Twenty Five", almost seven minutes of stuff that Engine Kid would be proud to claim.

That previous statement shows an evolution in my musical thinking, and I'm happy to say that I quite appreciate the delicate harshness of the music promulgated by Boys Life. And Departures and Landfalls flows along much like the title. Some tunes are going somewhere, and some aren't. The musical course set by the band has left this album in most impressive shape.

Not a lot else to say. Not much more I need say, either.

Fuzzy, heavy pop that reminds a whole lot of Husker Du's lighter moments. I don't think that's necessarily the most apt description, but what the hell.

"Defense Mechanism" is a nicely anthemic pop rocker, with plenty of production room fuzz to keep any palate whetted. The song never quite reaches its potential maximum impact, but does nicely nonetheless.

The flip, "Girl/boy" follows in the same vein, just a bit more halting in its pop delivery. I like the odd lyrics a bit better than the a-side, but once again, the song falls just short of perfection, like the band is just tossing off a gem.

Such indifference is a little annoying, but the two tunes are wonderful, and perhaps one day the band will decide to really rip into them and give them the showcase they deserve.

The last four tracks are the Dick Smoker EP, while the first four tracks are the Kill a Cop for Christ and Bring U His Head EP, which featured one new song each from Meathead and Cop Shoot Cop, with the bands remixing each other's song as well (four tracks in all there).

Confused? Well, remember that the two Cop Shoot Cop tracks (the original and the remixed versions of "Schweinhund!") are the last recording work the band did as a unit (Tod A. is currently fronting Firewater).

The Kill a Cop EP is fairly good, with the remixes far outshining the original songs. Makes you mourn Cop Shoot Cop's passing, in any case. The Dick Smoker tracks (the last four listed) consist of a fairly clean mix and a "wet" mix of the title track, a catchy industrial tune called "Outta My Face" and a cover of Pussy Galore's "Loser", which obviously shouldn't be confused with Beck's song of the same title. Come on, you aging alternative hacks out there, laugh with me!.

And then track #9, which is short and of mild interest. Untitled, of course. Pretty annoying if you actually get through all two minutes. This is a wildly diverse set of tunes (two EPs and two creative bands will do that to you) that could probably have used some cohesion, but will suffice in its current form. Some wonderful noises going on.

Fast beats, cheap and sleazy guitars, sometimes inscrutable lyrics ("Three nights in west Texas, that's all I want from you"--I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy!) and a general sense of fun that is often missing from the current set of punk ideologues.

Indeed, Dr. Bob's Nightmare breaks almost all the rules, espousing the general sex, drugs and rock and roll lifestyle even while lampooning it. The band is versatile to wrap itself around stripped-down versions of many musical forms (generally getting back to punk by the end of things).

Fans of old Social D. (the Restless days) should gobble this up with greedy gulps. Anyone who appreciates a band that refuses to take anything or anyone seriously (including themselves; bassist and sometime singer Wendy Lee Gadzuk will be appearing on the cover of a tattoo magazine in a couple weeks) can't really resist. And hell, the music is just what the doctor ordered (oh, man, I'm sorry about that...).

A real blast. Twenty tunes, fifty minutes, and not a bad one in the bunch. Gutter punk in all its fury and glory. Great fun.

Plenty of folks have been asking me who's distributing Nuclear Blast in the U.S. these days. I still don't have an answer for that, but this album is going through Conquest in the U.S., while Nuclear Blast's new deal with East-West (Warner) is taking care of Europe. Confused? Join the club.

Those of you out of the loop on recent Tampa goings-on take note: This is the final Monstrosity album with George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher on vocals. He's now fronting Cannibal Corpse. Fisher's replacement is Jeff Avery, who used to growl for Eulogy.

In a way it's too bad Fisher quit just as Monstrosity and Scott Burns got their collective shit together and recorded the first good album in the band's history. Yeah, a lot of that has to do with the fact that Burns is really into technically tight production nowadays, but I've got to say that Monstrosity has finally figured out how to write reasonably coherent songs, and thus doesn't sound like a poor cousin to Cannibal Corpse anymore.

I still wish the guys would rely on more raw feel and less flashy playing, but what the hell, I'll take what I can get. This is the first Monstrosity album I would recommend even to death metal fans. I hope for an even more improved future.

Euro-style metal with elements of industrial dance, doom and death metal wandering into the mix. A fine brew for the melodic metal connoisseur.

Talented and excessive, Morgana Lefay has moments of brilliance that are often overwrought by everything the band is trying to do. I can hear precisely what the guys are going for, and even when they get there, they're simply not satisfied. There is a skill at knowing when to say when.

Still, I'd much rather a band scrape and crawl over the edge than lie back in the easy chair. Morgana Lefay has ripped out some fine tunes, and on the whole the album is very good. If the guys hadn't tried quite so hard, the album might have reached epic proportions.

An easy recommendation nonetheless. The guitar lines are soaring and majestic, the songs crafted for maximum exploitation of sound and thought. Keep it up, guys!

If someone could explain to me why Swedish punk bands seem to be so much more adept at ripping off huge chunks of American-style music than the kids in southern California, I'd be most gratified. Not unlike Millencolin, No Fun At All pounds out plenty of punk ravers (kinda derivative of the Offspring, which brings them down just a notch) in a familiar sound.

And, of course, the singing is in a perfectly American accent. The music could pass, obviously, and the stuff is pretty infectious. Cut down on the Offspring-style stuff, and the guys would really be somewhere.

Play it loud and you just won't care. I'd like to say more, but I'm afraid the adrenaline is pumping a bit too fast, and I have to go grab a beer to mellow out for a few. This puppy is a real blood-pumper.

And I thought Morgana Lefay was trying too hard. Pike is working its ass off, and unfortunately nothing really clicks.

The first problem is the really tinny, bass-heavy (yes, it's possible) production. That's alright for the Jesus Lizard (which, surprisingly, Pike has obviously studied), but for a band that's somewhere on the line demarcating hardcore and grindcore (with lots of other ideas tossed in) that's not a great idea.

At times Pike finds a reasonable groove, but the whole effect is one of sonic unbalance. It sounds interesting at first, certainly, but after a while the whole mess just gets annoying. And that's too bad, because Pike has pulled more interesting musical ideas into their sound than any band I've heard in a long time. All sorts of metal, industrial, noise, pop and jazz elements meander past in some strange attempt at loud music fusion.

But Pike at its best sounds just like Fudge Tunnel (which is a fine ideal, but there's already a band taking up that space). At its worst, Pike sounds like a ship adrift, its members clueless as to how they should right the rudder. A ton of potential, but nothing realized as yet.

Somewhere, Mayo Thompson is the epitome of cheesy pop. Just not in this universe.

This is the latest installment of Thompson's well off-kilter pop sensibilities, as realized with a plethora of friends. The best known, most likely, is Jim O'Rourke, though the names Tom Watson and Lynn Johnston also jump out (though I doubt the golfer and cartoonist, respectively, are the persons involved).

The thing about the Red Krayola (and Thompson's other work) I like the best is that with a subtle shift, this stuff would be slopped up by the Counting Crowes set. Now, I didn't just compare Hazel to such dreck, but I'm just saying a genius can do wonders with subtlety. And certainly Mayo Thompson qualifies there.

Now, I could compare this easily to Roky Erickson, though Thompson generally sticks to more acoustic and sparse arrangements. The concept of mordant psychedelia, though, is a common thread. Indeed, to fully appreciate this music, you really have to separate yourself from this particular plane and reach out toward the sound. This doesn't require drugs (self-hypnosis works much better), but I suppose they wouldn't necessarily hurt.

Hell, the stuff sounds pretty damned amazing even if you're just passively listening. Of course, this is participatory music and the muse demands no less from you, the listener. Hear and obey, O minions of music.

Featuring "The Cream Team", if you couldn't read that notation on the cover. Rubin and company specialize in recasting "guitar god" material, like Cream or Led Zeppelin, in a pseudo-psychedelic setting. Kinda cheesy, but sorta fun.

Really forgettable. The performances are good, and the production is nice and fuzzy. Stuff like "Nyack" could almost pass as alterna-pop, and that strange first track (it sounds like an audition tape for a voice-over job) is positively hilarious. Well, maybe I've seen too many of my friends' Home Shopping Network audition videos.

Crunchy and tasty, but not filling in the least. A cool set of ear candy that melts away as soon as the disc stops. I don't think Rubin was really going for much more, and he certainly doesn't take himself too seriously (a point in his favor). Good, without worrying about becoming great.

Seriously overdramatic techno collection, of which a third are new tracks. The most compelling feature is how little the band has changed its sound over time.

With obvious goth overtones melded into a hard techno groove (like a moodier FLA at times), Signal Aout 42 does much better when it focuses on music and doesn't whip out vocals. When the singing comes in, the music drops off to a generic level. But the instrumental tracks and breaks within the songs are great.

There's a couple rare 12" remixes from the 80s, but most of the retrospective tracks are straight from the three LPs, albums I wouldn't mind hearing in full. And a new set of songs would also be cool, as much of the best here is the most recently-recorded material.

I'd never heard of the band, but this set makes me want to do a little scouring for previous output. A good starting point, certainly.

The strangest thing about this 7" is that a photo of the residences that bear the numbers "1353" and "1355" were also featured (in a somewhat modified format) as the cover art for Boys Life's first album on Crank!. They aren't from the same photo (the Boys Life cover has snow on the stoop, and there's none here), making this likely a very weird coincidence. That or these residences have some significance that is beyond my grasp of trivia.

The band is from Austin, but the music lies in the same realm as Boys Life: sparse, moody pop. The recording levels bounce about a bit, but nothing too annoying.

All three songs are quite good, and the performances are good enough, as part of the charm of this sort of music is the raw feel. Silver Scooter seems to have a solid grasp on what it wants to say.

After bouncing about (their debut album was released first by Headhunter, and then later got distributed by Atlantic), Smile comes back to a comfy punk home.

"Masterlocks" is a good enough punk-pop raver. Included with this a-side is a cover of the Inbreds "She's Acting", which sounds a bit listless here. The other two "b-sides" are somewhat better, though a song called "Crispin Glover vs. Tom Snyder" should be a little more interesting than it turns out. And anyway, Crispin Glover kicked Letterman (years ago), not Tom Snyder (unless something happened in the last year).

Alright, but nothing special. Smile is going to have to work to regain my interest.

Doing its damndest to breach the gap between Seattle's pop and grunge sounds, Stella plies "Blissmark" with massive riffage and an oddly hooky pop sensibility.

Hooky if you can get through the bombast, that is. The production has left everything with an extra helping of distortion, and that doesn't help anyone trying to find the pop core of the song.

Yeah, the Posies sound a lot like this live, but their albums are a little more circumspect. And then how to explain the b-side, "Azure", which is little more than an acoustic guitar and a really strained voice. Pretty enough, but a serious counterpoint to the excesses of "Blissmark".

I have no idea what's going on here. Perhaps that's for the best.

The art is indicative: Tube Top has a thing for rockabilly-pop and themes from the 50s and early sixties. Bouncy and kinda fun, with a guitar sound I've only heard from one other band, the Boorays.

And my memories of the Boorays keep me from getting too excited here. Tube Top simply pales in comparison, lacking the infectious goofiness that really kicks this sort of stuff over the top.

If Tube Top could kick the sound into overdrive (enough of the mushmouth recording) and find some inspired silliness, then I might get more interested.

Includes the a-sides of the Tube Top, Stella and Contraption singles reviewed in this issue, with a song apiece from Churn, Harlingtox A.D., Walkie Talkie and The Chauffeur. The collection, as it were.

Obviously, the label head has a thing for pop music, as all seven bands end up somewhere in that catchall category. the Contraption tune is easily the best, and I rather liked The Chauffeur's tune, "Super Girl".

Much of the rest I've already reviewed, and it suffers from bland disease. There's plenty of potential in these bands, but they really need to take a few chances and find original territory. Playing it safe just doesn't cut it.

Boy, this could pass for Blue Yard Garden's peppier brother. Same roots-rock influences, with just a bit more bounce in the step.

And a little more generic, too. Pleasant stuff, sure, and executed quite well, but still somewhat uninspired. That acoustic backbeat groove gets old quick, and the hooks are sweet but tired. I know plenty of folks who dig this kinda thing (say, the critics who made the Uncle Tupelo alumni albums the hit of the Village Voice poll last year), but it doesn't hold my interest for long.

Good enough run-throughs of a familiar sound. If that's all you want, then dig in.