Man, the desert sun must be boiling the brains of these guys. Another loud, screaming release from Reno's Spacement Records finds Ty (from Soul Emigre) yet again yelling his head off about love, death, and...Metroid?

Wes, a familiar face in unfamiliar territory, Metroid in emo/thrash/hardcore/post/pop/punk/whatever. The new band is quite good, the bassist, Justin, being a real standout among competent and creative musicians. The songs themselves continue the Soul Emigre style with frenetic thrashing balanced (usually) with muscular verses that draw you in. Ty's vocals are published with this album, and a good thing too, as their originality is occasionally confusing, but always intersting.

Stand-out tracks include "Converse and Soymilk", "Doom's Day", and "Jaywalker" (which is very strange, but really interesting, like a puppy growing out of a houseplant: How did it get there? Do you water it or feed it? The world may never know).

Some off notes are common on first albums; "Burning Down a Billboard" starts great, but loses coherence in the bridge (not the cool kind, the "oh hell, where are we" kind). "Burn the cd, Record the Record" has excellent lyrics, but stands out like a mullet at the opera. Less acoustic foppery, more hardcore please.

Good band. if they come to your town, go see them. Buy a record. let them eat your ramen and sleep on your porch.

-Thomas Hampson