Nine Dollar Mellon Baller, Bio Ritmo, Grasshopper and the Golden Crickets, Lewis Parker
Help Wanted, Far Too Jones, Low End Lars, dayinthelife...

	Nine Dollar Melon Baller / Riding the Ephidrine Horse / NDMB (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "EX" Nine Dollar Melon Baller is your basic bad-ass rock group. Riding the Ephidrine Horse is riff-driven music to have a barroom brawl by. Tool fans should listen to tracks like "EX" and "A.D.D. Playground". Helmet fans will love "Weather Boy". "Pathetic" sounds like Stevie Ray Vaughn meets Korn. If you agree with the music industry pundits who think Hard Rock is on the comeback trail, Riding the Ephidrine Horse could be part of the evidence you're looking for. -- nw
	Bio Ritmo / Rumba Baby Rumba / Triloka (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Yo Soy La Rumba" Looking for the perfect poolside record? Okay, so maybe it's a bit late in the summer, but check out Bio Ritmo anyway. They've got the Latin swing thing down perfectly, to the point that less restrained listeners will undoubtedly start samba-ing around the house, shaking imaginary maracas and making annoying "brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" noises. Though big, bold and brassy, Rumba Baby Rumba unsurprisingly lacks the spontaneity of a live show -- but indicates that Bio Ritmo is worth a look-in if they come to your town. -- gz
	Grasshopper and the Golden Crickets / The Orbit of Eternal Grace / Beggars Banquet (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "The Orbit of Eternal Grace" Mercury Rev's mysterious guitarist jets out on his own (with a bit of side accompaniment) with this experiment in spatial, spacy rock which relies on heavily effected guitar and contradictory parlays of noisy experimentations. The only thing that should be expected is unpredictability, as Grasshopper reveals a secret agenda of whirling, post-modern conceptualizations that border Spacemen 3 and The Flaming Lips. -- am
	Lewis Parker / Masquerades and Silhouettes / Caroline/Melankolic (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Fake Charades (dirty version)" A forest of breakbeats and a lush bed of scratchy samples are the background for Parker's impassioned delivery -- it's easy to picture him poised over the microphone, bristling with barely-restrained intensity, his British-accented syllables punching along like the keys of a typewriter. Music-wise, imagine Portishead after a few cups of coffee and you'll have a pretty firm grasp of what's going on here. On the downside, the pacing is pretty constant throughout the disc, causing the cuts to sound superficially similar -- and the whole Star Wars metaphor (Parker's a self-styled Jedi b-boy) becomes laborious rather swiftly. -- gz
	Help Wanted / The Return of Monkey Face / Help Wanted (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "No Name" If you're looking for a kind of progressive, folksy rock sound, The Return of Monkey Face will surely do the trick. Besides the standard rock orchestra of guitars and basses and such, you get some of the options (harmonica, trumpet and bongos) and even some decidedly rarer sounds (clarinet and balalaika). Despite the diverse sonic elements that contribute to The Return of Monkey Face, its overall sound is nicely consistent and indicates a conscious effort on Help Wanted's part to develop a unique aural signature. "No Name" will get you a glimpse of it. -- nw
	Far Too Jones / Picture Postcard Walls / Mammoth (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "As Good As You" Remember The Hooters? I ask merely because Far Too Jones bear a vague resemblance to that mid-eighties band, cranking out tasty, catchy dollops of radio-ready roots-inflected pop rock. Vocalist Christopher Spruill has one of those throaty, raw voices that works perfectly with this sort of material, while producer Gavin MacKillop gives the disc a commercial veneer that, while doubtless utterly offensive to indie rock purists, manages to avoid bleeding every last drop of originality and spontaneity from the songs. Simple and enjoyable. -- gz
	Low End Lars / Low End Lars / Crunchy Food / BobbyJ Records (LP) Sample 30 seconds of "# Eleven" An ethereal excursion manned primarily by reverb-soaked guitar, Low End Lars (is it a band? Is it a person?) plays some mind expanding space-core that either makes you feel like you're on drugs or ups the ante on that last dose you took. Whoa...is it the computer screen swaying, or just you? Sit back, relax, hold your breath and try not to lapse into unconsciousness with this smooth adventure across the vinylscape. -- am
	dayinthelife... / dayinthelife... / TVT/Building (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Sign of the Times" Dayinthelife... are one of those loud, intense punk rock bands that scare the elderly, the infirm and Repulicans over thirty. Their jackhammer-drumming, guitar churning approach incorporates plenty of vitriolic screaming and an occasional injection of post-grunge vocal harmonies, and there really isn't a single song on the disc that could be described as "mellow" -- unless you're grading on a curve, musically speaking. -- gz

nw - noah wane | gz - george zahora | am - andrew magilow