The Yeah Yeah Yeah's lead singer Karen O is a breath of fresh air in the post-Britney smog of the mainstream music world. She's a sassy, fierce, yet gentle-voiced rocker with an Iggy Pop complex and an attitude that officially puts the riot girrl movement on ice. Even after taking vocal cues from Bikini Kill's Kathleen Hannah on the hardcore track "Mystery Girl", Karen manages to almost seemingly own the vocal stylings that came into being since the late 70's. The Yeah Yeah Yeah's E.P. debut is a thrilling and exciting rock statement that manages to rock, all the while keeping tongue-firmly-in-cheek. Ingredients that are missing from most glossy studio fetish debuts of today. On "Bang" Karen first stuns us with her vocals as she starts off singing a beat-rap in an aching whine "At the first sign you sucked" and then later changes to sing "I need the real thing tonight" with all the seductiveness of a female Jim Morrison or Robert Plant as Nick Zinner's guitar licks thrust into your ears. Then on "Mystery Girl" Karen sings about mystery girls and their mystery boy "toys" all backed by a sleazy New York Dolls rockabilly riff. "Art Star" opens with the best line of the whole E.P. "I've been working on a piece that speaks of sex and desperation" before blaring out your eardrums with an unexpected death metal growl of "art star!", and then further distorienting you with a second chrorus of "doot do doot do doot do" that sounds like something straight out of a 50's teen love song.

Karen O is the perfect female rock star. She has the balls of a guy and all the girly charm of a woman at the same time. The band sounds like they are ready to shake things up with their down and dirty garage rock. The closing song "Our Time" could be the new anthem for a generation. The track opens with their typical raunchy guitar riffs but then fades out as Karen subdues us with a 60's girl group croon.

It's confidence, defeat, fame, and misfortune all rolled into one. The ultimate statement on an age of one-hit wonders, money-hungry record executives and a fickle public. It's the realization that by going to the top you are most likely going to fall. There should be more albums like this, but even if this is all the Yeah Yeah Yeah's release, it will have been enough.

Enon: High Society
Available at Amazon.com!

The act of listening to High Society would sorta be like taking the mysterious pill that adorns the cover. You're not quite sure what the side-effects will be or what images you might see or in this case hear. Enon, now with the addition of Toko Yasuda (formely of Blonde Redhead), sound insanely erractic and unfocused. But that is a good thing. Instead of giving you predictable by the numbers indie-fare they give you a crazy party record for hipsters. The album's sound is divided primarily into four styles, grunge, synth-punk, Beatlesque harmony, and Yasuda's bizarre baby-doll pop. The first five tracks remain the best, though the rest of the album doesn't let you down. The first "Old Dominion" is Strawberry Alarm Clock/Nirvana-styled punk which is followed by "Count Sheep" a pop dittie with an air of mystery about it that turns into Sonic Youth guitar chaos. Yasuda's first appearance on the album comes next on "In The City". It's theremin-sounding synths float around as Yasuda puts on her best cupie-pie persona giving one images of lonely plastic consumer cities. "Window Display" kicks in next. Almost completely devoid of any electronics it is a perfect pop song with Keith Richard guitars meeting George Harrison harmonies behind the line "I bought a window display and married her at once!"

Track five "Native Numb" pulls no punches on the techno as a robotic voice (think "Karn Evil 9") growls in the background. The rest of the album is not that musically different but that doesn't mean it is a let down and unlike every other album I can think of, it is not predictable. The title track "High Society" also proves that Enon have the goods in the lyric department too as singer John Schmersal claims " It can be lonely at the top". Enon could even give Wilco lessons on mid-west pop as made apparent on the Springsteen rock of "Sold!". Definitely an erractic album but also a great one. Maybe that pill on the cover is a sedative to take after you've heard the album within. Me, I'll take the album but all you Jimmy Eat World fans can take the pill. Take lots of pills and choke on 'em.

Hot Snakes: Suicide Invoice
Available at Amazon.com!

After about 2 mins into the first track "I Hate The Kids" you realize that by the end of Suicide Invoice there will be no survivors. Chugging basslines and steam engine guitars best describe the sound that is the Hot Snakes. The vocals are desperate and raspy, the lyrics are unforgiving and vindictive. This is the monster that ex- Rocket From the Crypt member John Reis has created. Blistering Stooges garage punk hasn't sounded this fresh since its conception in the late 60s. As stated earlier, its lyrics are vindictive attacks. Take "Who Died" for instance with its declaration, "The Catholics confirm what the Protestants knew/They thought it was them/They glad it was you." But don't take that too literally, the Hot Snakes also have a sense of humor as it becomes evident by the end of the song with the lines "My friends all ask me who died? It was you, you're the one who died!"

The title track "Suicide Invoice" is the only one in which the lyrics turn from attack mode to insecure confessional as the lyrics tell of a dreamt suicide pact between lovers.