SCRAWL - Travel on Rider-Elektra
This is the first completely strong,absolutely exciting,thoroughly kick ass rock record I have heard in a very, very long time. The Ohio trio responsible for some of the best  live performances I've seen over the past ten years are still growing and refining their thing. Travel on Rider, the bands sixth studio album and first on a major label (Oh, don't start), delivers twelve highly refined, spooky-pretty, smart,dissonant gems of corn fed post-punk rock. The band's gritty textures and disturbing vocal harmonies(both of long tradition) benifit from Steve Albini's dry, spacious production. I'll bet they're still great folks to hang out with, too. OK, so I like SCRAWL. I know, Rolling Stone is telling me the new Veruca Salt record is gonna kick me right there because they have big 70's rock muscle (and they recorded it in Hawaii). Well, I saw VS open for SCRAWL back when. The mix was shit, which gutted Sue and Marcy's vocals, but no one noticed because VS sounded like Journey. The real muscle is in the band that can make a record that sounds like the best parts of George Jones, Wire, and Nazareth(and was larglely recorded in France). Record of the year. Dream Rock Show: Unwound, SCRAWL. [Matt]