The Embarrassment, "(I'm a) Don Juan"

Twitchy call to arms from behind horn rims. Prairie polyrhythms fall in line, clearing room for bleached, offhand yeh-yeh echoes and that restless bass. A plinky digital mix can distract, but the life-affirming video (1981) more than compensates if KBD-and-seek seems a chore. The heart of the matter with Kansas.

"(I'm a) Don Juan"

Devils Hole Gang, "Isn't It"

DIY shrapnel from the Desperate Bicycles milieu. Ferocious in the most oblique way: start–stop hook erosions keep it earthy, but the sentiment is thoroughly modern, a jaundiced electric eye sizing up received pieties of the early Thatcher days. A swift seminar, also, on the title's grammar-defying valences in British dialect — illogic the Homosexuals aired with "It's What's in It, Isn't It?" Timeless crackle pop from a distant island kingdom.

"Isn't It"

The Yolks, "I Do What I Do"

The newest in new from Criminal IQ. Urgency without untidiness, revival without regression, and, incidentally, the perfect melody. Over. Easy.

"I Do What I Do"

BRUNCH: Amy Linton + Stewart Anderson

Popstar dalliance, 1996–1999. Four tracks that sound, respectively, like the Aislers Set, Boyracer, the Aislers Set, and Boyracer. A tremendous primer at any rate, but synthesis this is not, and we're left, swooning, to wonder: What is that middle ground?

"The Lights Are Out"
"Romance, Baby I Don't Care"
"Hipsters, Scenesters, Teenstars and Fakers"
"I Cut My First Tooth on One Just Like You"

The Last, "Looking at You"

Minimally reflective freeway punk. Aside from coffee, fish, and fast food, the Descendents' lone influence — a fact evident on the "Ride the Wild" single but hidden by the time of Fat. Hyperreal harmonies, triplet fills, and beachy bravado. Surf Nazis, basically.

"Looking at You"

Cardiac Arrest, "Old New"

Thug lite from the shores of the Mississippi. Throaty barks, structure, and everything else recall Negative FX, but themes stay closer to the vest — "You used to push me in the halls / Now you push me in the pit" — and betray a boyishness that Brannon could never ratify. Forever 17.

"Old New"

BRUNCH: Sin Orden

Crudos disciples sloganeer, counter-hegemonize. Reductionist migra manifestos still hit hard, biggish breakdowns and an impossibly militaristic snare drum lighting the way. Recent splits and some airspace on the first Histeria also merit attention, but this EP is doctrine.

Intro/"Pesadilla americana"
"Autonomía"
"Nuestra historia"
"Somos la mayoría"
"Cuándo va terminar"
"Puños en el aire"
"Leyes y reglas"
"No a la guerra"
"Imbasión"

The Softies, "Hey Hey Girl"

Central Valley popcest. Rose Melberg and the other one scrub Rocketship clean with nary an organ in sight, tasteful bells doing the evocative with plenty of room to breathe. Eclipses the Talulah Gosh cover on It's Love and, by furlongs, every Softies original. Ambience through absence.

"Hey Hey Girl"

Indigesti, "Nessuna ragione"

Germy thrash, Italia '82. Speedy shock therapy: brat-pack yowls, Piedmont populism, grainy messthetics. Tighter than the Wretched split — and tighter than Wretched — but resolutely anti-technical. Molto espressivo.

"Nessuna ragione"