Various Artists
TWISTED RICO’S COOLEST CATS
(TWISTED RICO)

This Boston-based label’s third compilation expands beyond local bands to include artists from the West Coast, Edmonton, Georgia, Brooklyn, New Jersey, and even the Netherlands. Too bad the scope of its imagination isn’t as broad. Most outfits here play it strictly by the numbers, drawing on the time-faded colors of pedantic garage rock, metal, and punk.

Sometimes that’s not such a bad thing. Atlanta’s Catfight bring zest, ring ’n’ rip guitars, and a solid vocal performance to "He’s Bad," coming off like an all-girl Ramones. And Jersey’s the Bobfields summon a jittery kinetic energy for "Road Map," nodding toward smart-punk outfits like Gang of Four and Pere Ubu while retaining a tuneful edge. The flip side is tracks like "I Like Her (Band)" from Boston’s Modifiers — a cliché from lyrics to leads to its lifeless chord progression, and with a vocalist who struggles desperately to get somewhere close to in-tune.

LA’s Shut Up Marie and Elaine Summers offer less predictable numbers. The latter’s "Ice Thru My Fingers" is a sharply arranged chunk of country pop ready for AAA radio; it’s powered by Summers’s steely voice. And Shut Up Marie’s Annette Marie shakes her break-up ballad as if she were a caffeinated Hope Sandoval. Local favorites Quintaine Americana and Chilly Kurtz are also featured, as are Kurtz’s arty, dark-yet-playful first band, Ashera.

Issue Date: November 1 - 8, 2001