Rebirth Brass Band We Come to Party (Shanachie)
The Rebirth boys demonstrate that brass and drums are all you need to summon a righteous racket. The swinging pulse of the percussion carries a gooey, glittering mixture of Dixieland, Afro-Cuban and funk styles. Easy-to-handle solos stumble into each other like good-natured drunks at a block party.
Stagmummer Rim (Independent) Fast, angry, jagged chaos from Winnipeg pharmacy students produced by Steve Albini--really! If Detroit's Laughing Hyenas had done crystal meth instead of opiates for a decade, they could only hope to sound as vicious as Stagmummer--which means that this band runs on enough bile to send old Lucifer fleeing in fear. Scarier than a cold-blooded murder scene and nastier than anything AmRep has put out in years. 8.5/10 (Lorrie Edmonds) Various Summerdaze (BMG) This collection of freedom rockers features John Kay and Steppenwolf, Foghat, Blue Öyster Cult and Pat Travers limping through the '90s. Kay, Foghat and Travers offer up rehashed licks from their glory days. BÖC, on the other hand, simply reheat their classics "The Reaper" and "Godzilla" in a live setting, but the imagination and inspiration that made the original versions so great are nowhere to be found. Summerdaze tells us it's about time to take these old dogs behind the barn and put them out their misery or, rather, ours. 4.5/10 (Johnson Cummins)
The disc starts out on a poppy Superchunkish note, with touches of Poster Children's awkward aggression. Before long, though, the junior science whiz electronics wander in. That's when things get weird. Note, for instance, the woo-wee crunch of "Favorite Thing," which suggests Steve Albini at the wheel of the Cars. NSB save the best and strangest for last: the loopy track "Sunny Turns to Blue." 7.5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg) New Sweet Breath blow into Isart (260 St-Antoine W.) with Boston's Tugboat Annie and local duo Fearless Freep Tuesday, July 22. 9pm, $5
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Tracks like "U Been Watchin' Me" and the sultry "Liberian Girl" have a whole lotta hootin' and hollerin' going on as well. Fifty-four minutes of unbridled, irrepressible energy is what this is. I've been trying to cut down my consumption of coffee and, if it's cool with my neighbours, I just may have found a morning substitute. 10/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
New Sweet Breath A Shotgun Down an Avalanche (Big Top)