Takes me back to the 80s, when slightly alternative rock bands were the rage at college stations.

American Standard isn't terribly innovative or anything, but there is this knack for cranking out addictive licks and songs that make you want to find your own guitar.

The formula is simple, and these boys have followed it. No one said making music was that difficult; it's coming up with something interesting that it. Particularly when you're mining a spent shaft.

And while American Standard doesn't cover any new ground, they make this territory sound pretty good. Easy, fun and simple. Who says music has to be difficult all the time?

Reasonably accessible experimental electronic fare. Not quite ambient, as there is too much noise going on. But this is no club record, either.

Black Lung works with the variations on a theme idea, starting with one basic rhythm, melody or whatever and then building on that until a more fully fleshed-out concept is realized. But this isn't like a rule, or anything.

In other words, not for the average listener.

But I don't want to scare you off. Black Lung is weird, challenging, strange and beautiful all at once. It just requires a little work on your part.

I really dig stuff like this because it makes my mind work. I actually have to think about what I am listening to. A little work never hurt anyone.

Loosely-recorded ethereal pop, with a sound that seems to be merely floating out of the speaker. Not what I expected from Thick. But that's cool with me.

Melodically, Calliope has obviously spent years listening to brooding UK pop, from the Smiths to My Bloody Valentine. Everything seems to be just tinged with a minor key. That little feeling that tells you something isn't quite right.

Not precisely my cup of tea, but Calliope pulls the trick off pretty well. There aren't that many overlays, so the simple, pretty sound can emanate from your stereo and not be cut off by something jarring.

A cool (slightly psychedelic) pop disc. What's not to like?

Still pushing the speed envelope, Deceased still violates (on a regular basis) my #1 rule of songwriting: If you got a good groove, don't fuck with it. The intro to "Morbid Shape in Black" is positively stunning. I couldn't believe it, to be honest. And then the band decided to go to grind speed for the verse.

I know, this is a tradition in death metal, a bad habit picked up from listening to too much Iron Maiden (I still haven't quite forgiven that band for fucking up "Caught Somewhere in Time") and such.

Some of the prog touches are nice, but Deceased is best when it sticks to one idea at a time. The anthemic agonizing gets a little stale at times. And if you don't believe my Iron Maiden comparison, listen to "Island of the Unknown".

I keep waiting for that one Deceased album that will really break the band out of the "pretty good" category and into the "fucking amazing" category. The talent is there; I can feel it. After the EP, I thought this might be the album, but...

Plenty to dig, but this unrealized potential is starting to bug me.

Kinda poppy, kinda punky, definitely anthemic stuff with cool ideas for the rhythm guitar (read: riffs).

Toe-tapping and axe-grinding, Emory Swank has a nice feel for writing songs that sound like they're important. But not too important, you know?

Lots of bands try to do this, but Emory Swank has put out a great two-song 7". Two different sounds for the band, and yet enough to get the full idea. Sounds like a winner to me.

An ultra-clean move on the NY metal-core sound that has been all-too-pervasive. Full Circle has found a slick-yet-sparse sound that somewhat reminds me of early Prong. This is not a bad thing.

The vocals are slung about with the full venom of a grinding rapper, and the music helps provide the underpinnings for a full-scale riot.

Leans riffs and the whiplash effect of the bass and drums are the sonic basis for Full Circle. But it's what is built upon that which is most impressive.

Simply put, this is highly catchy and astonishingly good. Just cycle through the disc. The songs stay in much the same groove, but are varied enough to keep interest. Yeah, the comparisons to Prong or Sepultura or even Biohazard might be somewhat appropriate, but the cool this is Full Circle has staked a claim to its own sound. This is no rip-off. It's just good music.

Hardcore at the center, but all sorts of stuff wanders around the fringe. You might get a poppy rave up or an anthemic whine.

Just your basic rock band that likes to hear the guitars. Lots of guitars and songs about nothing in particular.

Perhaps Judge Nothing is a sort of alternative bar band. Just working-class punk, rock and pop principles that are easy enough to swallow and digest. Nothing wrong with that.

And nothing particularly exciting, either. I like the disc, but I don't love it. And that's about all I can say.

Five new ones from the Trains. Falling James has one line-up for this EP, and another for heading out on the road. And the Trains keep a rollin'...

The songs on this EP keep to a more conventional sound than the recent Leaving Trains albums, with a couple pieces that might even be called introspective and somewhat moody. And none of the songs gets wild or out of control, which is certainly a new suit for the band.

I wouldn't call this a new direction or anything, just a momentary speed bump in the road. And for a mellow interlude, this is a pretty good one. I know a god number of folks who have always considered Leaving Trains "too crazy"; they would probably like this.

Odd, but certainly amusing.

Sometimes it doesn't pay to ask why. This disc is supposed to have something to do with Elvis and Memphis and the death of the American dream (or something like that) all in two songs that don't even have names.

Well, "Untitled 2" does have a Sun Records feel to it and is a nice little rockabilly ripper. The first track is a meandering and moping piece that could be seen as a funeral dirge, if you want.

Hell, I don't know what all this means, but I sure do like it. Seven-and-a-half minutes of pure Mekons weirdness.

I had high expectations after getting the Cub from Mint a month ago (I'm still spinning that disc almost daily), and Pluto fulfilled my every desire quite wonderfully.

Straight ahead punk-pop with a thick guitar sound and really good songwriting. Does life get any better than this? Well, maybe, but you'd have to work real hard at it.

Let me reiterate: this ain't particularly complicated, fast, mean, ugly or politically motivated. If Pluto gets around to a fourth chord on a song, you might fall over in shock. But the finest pleasures are simple ones, and Pluto is as tasty as this stuff comes.

You just have to listen for a few seconds, and you'll be hooked, too. Vancouver seems to have taken the cue from all the great pop/punk bands in Seattle and then done them one better. First Cub and now Pluto. Trust me. You need your Mint.

Another shot of Beantown hardcore from the 6L6 boys.

The songs are a little more polished and less strident than on Not Even Warm, but the same sense of urgency and vicious attack wander through nonetheless.

Every once in a while I can hear the band struggling with pop song construction (within the regular raucous surroundings, of course), and that's not a bad thing. Much of the time, however, the boys are playing around with whatever cool noises they can introduce into the sound.

6L6 still reminds me of another (long gone) Boston band by the name of Bullet LaVolta. I liked that band a ton as well, and this album keeps 6L6 on a path toward greater accessibility and success without compromising any principles.

Another for the "don't miss" pile.

With this release, Souls at Zero now has more releases under its belt with its current name than as Wrathchild America. And with this release, Souls at Zero has pretty much put to rest all of the old Wrathchild America sound.

SAZ now favors grunge bass work, serious hollering and bluesy, yet strangely linear, riff work. And in the process everything has gotten a little generic.

Sure, the playing is immaculate (which is impressive, considering the difficulty of what is being played) and the production sharp and polished. And some songs really rip, like "My Fault?" But there are many other spots where the musical ideas runs together in a blur, and I end up not really caring what happens.

The EP was good, because it presented these ideas in a short burst. But to make a whole album of the same, well, it gets redundant. This doesn't suck, and there are a couple of great songs, but it just doesn't move me as much as the previous work.

While the live performance is where Spo-Its is at, this 7" does a decent job of showing all the possibilities the band can offer.

The sound is vaguely industrial, with all sorts of noises lurking in the shadows. But the a-side is warm and alive, not the sterile clanking of most industrial acts.

The flip consists of a warped torch 'n' twang song and a song called "Dead Girls Don't Say No" (their jangle pop tune). Rather loopy.

One note: the 7" says 45, but at that speed everyone sounds like chipmunks, and it sounds (relatively) normal at 33, so I'd go with that speed. Putting this music together with the power tools and roving s&m show that is Spo-Its would be rather interesting, indeed.

I was completely prepared to be disappointed. After all, how could VR top Lullaby Land, an album that I (and many other critics) consider perhaps the best industrial album ever recorded.

But instead of giving up, the Rodents called up 18 of their closest friends to guest on vocals. And the vocals are a little more relevant this time out, though as always you have to listen to the undercurrents to understand what Vampire Rodents are all about.

The liners say it all: "All VR compositions are Sample Based Compositions (SBC). So wake up and smell it, folks!" The beats are generally contain a world beat flair, and much of the surrounding orchestration is calculated to leave the listener stumbling. While a little more accessible than Lullaby Land, Clockseed is still a compendium of discord and sonic discrepancies.

Twenty-one fucking songs. I'd be happy with an album that had just a couple pieces of this quality on it. VR may not be everyone's cup of tea, but to ignore this disc would be a crime punishable by death, in my book. There isn't an adjective I can use to compare this with other albums. Nothing comes close.

This stuff will be on a disc someday (perhaps when the folks think of a label name, for starters), but I figured I could do better with a demo review.

Three acts: Urban Ambience, Emile "Dr. T" Tobenfeld and Beyond the Pale.

Urban Ambience is more of a jazz act than a strictly ambient one. For me, this makes it much more interesting. Sax, clarinet, flute and other instruments combine with the electronic to create some really innovative stuff.

Dr. T is a full-blown sampling and sequencing freak. He takes snippets from everyday life and melds them into some really intoxicating pieces.

Beyond the Pale is a prog-rock vision of ambience. The work is intricate but well-played. It should fall apart into a mess, but it doesn't.

Three acts with completely different ideas as to how one should approach the ambient ideal. And three ways of looking at that ideal that I've never heard before. If you are at all interested in electronic music, give these folks a yell immediately.

In case you're curious, Vowel Movement is Holly Vincent and Johnette Napolitano. Chances are you're heard of them.

The story goes that about a year ago their bands were touring together, and for some reason they decided to wear goofy wigs and open up the show as Vowel Movement. It apparently worked, so they then decided to record.

About as self-indulgent as any good side project, the music slides all over the stage, hitting you with pop anthems, punk screeds and lots of cool guitar noise. Disjointed may be an understatement. Vincent and Napolitano seem to have wanted to perpetuate chaos, and it worked.

As for any grand artistic statements, there aren't any. This is an album that has fun at its core, and the lack of pretension is quite cool to hear (particularly when you consider their day jobs). Just grab a beer, turn up the volume, and prepare to be bathed in random acts of musical kindness.

Goddamn, they want to be Anthrax. Well, with occasionally distorted vocals.

And that's when the band sounds halfway decent. A lot of this album is just highly generic "heavy metal". It gets depressingly dull. Like a bad Metal Church album. Think about it.

I like to offer constructive criticism, and all I can say is that the band should work on its own sound. Spend a year or so trying to come up with something original. That's my advice.