There are plenty of reasons to be excited about an Elf Power covers album. For one thing, the band hit a creative and technical high with last spring's Creatures, so the promise of any new Elf Power is a strong temptation. Then there's the group's choice of covers, which is certain to excite any rock fan; Nothing's Going to Happen includes songs written by Hüsker Dü, Bad Brains, The Buzzcocks, The Misfits, The Frogs, Gary Numan and Chris Knox, as well as an entire suite of Roky Erickson tunes. Collectors will also appreciate the inclusion of Elf Power's first "covers" outing, the Come On EP, which the band have finally reclaimed (although those same collectors may be frustrated by the absence of the DJ Little Ninja "Separating Fault" remix).

However, I was most looking forward to Nothing's Going to Happen as an opportunity to acquire a recorded version of the band's famously ass-kicking cover of the Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog". I was heartbroken, therefore, to receive my copy of the album and discover that "I Wanna Be Your Dog" didn't appear in the track listing.

I got over it. It was easy; while it's nowhere near as well-groomed as Creatures, Nothing's Going to Happen is Elf Power at their sloppy best, tearing through tunes they know and love. Their rip-roaring version of Bad Brains' "Pay to Cum" rivals the original in sheer intensity, and their "I Walked With the Zombie" captures Roky Erickson's drug-addled freakiness in a scaled down, less gratuitously hallucinatory package.

While I enjoy Elf Power's original material, the band has an almost freakish knack for covers, capturing the heart of each song -- and the spirit of the original version -- while actively asserting their own identity. Perhaps the credit goes to frontman Andrew Rieger's voracious appetite for music, or to the overall tightness of the ensemble, but however they do it, Elf Power wriggle their way under the skin of these songs like few other bands can. They nail the essential spirit of their subjects -- the Kiwi-style spaciousness of the Tall Dwarves' "Nothing's Going to Happen", the icy choppiness of Numan's "Shadows in Vain", the salacious, nudge-nudge strangeness of the Frogs' "Weird on the Avenue", the layered, streamlined power of Hüsker Dü's "Never Talking To You Again". The Come On tracks, while not as sophisticated, are equally effective.

It's no match for a fresh batch of Elf Power originals, of course, but Nothing's Going to Happen will inspire few complaints -- unless, like me, you were hoping for "I Wanna Be Your Dog". If that's the case, just remember that patience is a virtue -- and that there's no way the album-closing cover of Robyn Hitchcock's "Listening to the Higsons" is really ten minutes long...