Though the undertones of harmony and melody suggest that the band did in fact grow up adoring bands like U2 and the Cure (as their bio states), the overlay of screaming, satanic vocals has the same effect as someone getting up and pissing on the table at a swell dinner party. Part of the problem, at least to these ears, is the set up of the song: It builds up to the chorus, which is then sonically cast aside with the intrusion of hoarseness. The guitar work is big and all, and there are some nice lines running across the chords, but just when you're about to get all emotional and weepy, in comes this horrific, blaring, championship-wrestler voice. Maybe kids today feast on this kind of stuff, and don't get me wrong, I love dissonance (I'll listen to Stravinsky all day long), but the intermittent clashing is something I can't get over. Judge for yourself at www.thebeautifulmistake.com

Hey, remember the Fine Young Cannibals? Okay, remember that song "She Drives Me Crazy"? Sure you do. Anyway, the guitarist from that band, Andy Cox, has hooked up with Yukari Fujiu to form the band Cribabi (pronounced "cry baby"). And if you remember his old band, or even that song, you'll remember just how much the rhythm of his guitar propelled the music. Similar sounds occur here, and that's what sets the caliber of this group above other chick-fronted bands. Think of a happier, brighter Garbage, with poppier songs not buried in keyboard work and you'll be on the right track. There's nothing rough here that you might hurt yourself on. The music is as bubbly as a Seven-Up and just as sweet. The projected single, "I'm the One," does veer toward Garbage territory, but Fujiu's voice is better suited for the lighter fare. Interesting and fun. www.fidela.com/cri.htm

For two guys out of Oklahoma, the All-American Rejects make some great music. Their sound takes an up-tempo, melodic approach, with many layers of guitars and keyboards, but without sounding muddled or too busy. And just when you think the music might be getting complacent, something happens. For example, on "Your Star," as the chorus repeats, and keys in the background are vaguely reminiscent of Styx, in bangs a guitar solo out of nowhere. Though the songs all tend to meld together after a while, the charging pop music – drawing on Orange County punk and early U2 for inspiration – still manages to make me smile as each number whips by. There's an urgency to the tracks that comes from youth, a kind of pop optimism, if you will. It assures you – for the 40 minutes or so, anyway – that life is good, music is fun, and not much else matters. www.theall-americanrejects.com

This outfit out of Rochester, NY uses a good dose of humor in their songs. Want proof? Titles like "K-Tel Rock Star," "(It's Time to Party With) Hitler's Dog," and "I'll Never Eat Human Flesh Again," indicate their sensibilities are a bit skewed, to say the least. But there's a comforting element to their garage-band sound, an undercurrent of soul and funk that lifts the standard garage-rock element a bit. Vocalist Stan Merrell isn't content to merely sing the lyrics – his voice ranges from comic lilt to screeching, more along the lines of S.J. Hawkins than the current crop of hardcore voices. With a sax and keyboards in addition to the standard bass, guitars, and drums, the music is busier, like a hyper-caffeinated Van Morrison, and it charges along without letting up. Part frat-rock, part garage, parts unknown; the sound is fresh and fun, and worth checking out. www.jargonrecords.com/badenovs

So, yeah, everyone has computers now, digital recorders, and tons of blank CDs to burn. What does it mean? Well, for starters, it means I get discs like this one, with 38 tracks of fun, though that word is used facetiously. Does the fact that anyone can record mean everyone should record? It's kind of like the thousand chimps typing – one will eventually pound out Shakespeare. Anyhoo, Hansen intersperses his songs with musical interludes, meaning you get assorted noises in between the more normal verse-chorus-type songs. Is it any good? Well, spatial noises as far as art is concerned is a matter of mood – at the moment it's okay, but if I were in a shitty mood, I'd say this were just aural jerking off, and advise the guy to sell hot dogs or cut lawns for a living. As for his wordy, folky stuff, it's low-grade coffeehouse music, not well produced (the vocals clip all over the place), and what can I say? Give me two with mustard please.

Though occasionally bands are sparse musically, like a box of macaroni and cheese (the four-for-a-dollar kind), Father Divine are like three or four Thanksgiving meals in one day. If the phrase "structured chaos" makes any sense to you, then you'll appreciate their sound. In some tunes, there's a bigness at hand, like a mix between a rock opera and dark cabaret music. At other times, you'll hear shades of Tom Waits, as Father Divine (aka Joe Ferrara) attacks the vocals with whiskey-tinged pipes. There's a dissonance to the music that gives it a gritty feel, as on "Time Bomb in the Rough." On "3rd Ward Dirge," for example, you'd swear it was an outtake from a Waits session. But the immediate inaccessibility of the music (read: you don't start tapping your toe right away) shows there's a lot to consume here, much of it is dark and meaty, but pull yourself up to the table and dig in, I say. www.fatherdivine.com

When I hear a spacey, eerie, trip-hop number like the opening cut, I tend to keep looking around like something's going to happen. Not musically, but more like someone's going to plunge a knife in my back. And I say this not to let you know I'm paranoid, but rather the effect the music has on me, and presumably, will have on you as well. "How Could I Feel" has a creepy effect on the ears. The swirling of the keyboards, the bubbling of the bass, will make you think something is about to cut loose. It's all about tension, and that's why the ditty works for me. The overall feel of the disc is akin to the presence of HAL in the movie 2001, a darkness that pervades the numbers and keeps you edgy. On "Tundra," for example, big-guitar sounds intrude occasionally, but the underbelly is still a low-speed keyboard pulsing, and I get the feeling I should be running into the basement. Cool stuff indeed. www.zenenmusic.com

There's probably a bunch of ways to describe this music, which is a melding of indie rock with Latin flavors. But no matter how you choose to label the band, there's no escaping the attractiveness of the music. The opener, "Vamo Nenas," sounds like a Hispanic version of 10,000 Maniacs, a clean kind of rock, with singer-guitarist Ani Cordero's voice wafting across like a young Natalie Merchant. Yet when the following track, "Hellfire," lights up, a darker side of the band emerges, as Cordero's voice is both sultry and seductive over a kind of ethereal horror/Tex-Mex rock tune. What's interesting is the mesh between the indie-rock feel and the Latin sound; it's not altogether unfamiliar, and the shift from one to the other is so smooth that it sounds natural. And, hey, they even take a stab at "Todo Por Ti," a tango number from long ago, though they sound more comfortable with their own material. www.corderomusic.com

You know, there are guys who play acoustic rock like Dave Matthews, strumming like crazy, and playing to moon-eyed college kids. God bless 'em, but I prefer my folkies to be more like Mike Errico, who mixes humor with an artist's sense of suffering in his lyrics. He comes off at times bittersweet, at times like he's forcing the jokes too much, but taken as a whole, it's a nice break from the usual FM dial. His voice is clear, though it cracks and wavers once in a while, but given that this is a live recording, and he's fairly aggressive on the acoustic guitar, it's not an annoyance. Errico mixes tempos well, from the slow and hypnotic ("Underwater"), to the bright and up-tempo ("Daylight"), to a song like "Happy," which gets you just that way, mixing a folky verse with a blues turnaround at the end, and with lyrics that just make you laugh. Again, this is a live recording, so this it what you'd get if you saw him. www.errico.com

Ned Massey has that American troubadour sound to his music. Well, not necessarily a sound, but a feel you get when you listen to his music. Like Bob Dylan or Tom Waits – when you hear them, you know it's an American thing. Lyrically, he is more of a storyteller than simply concerned with rhyming words, and fortunately he is good at telling stories, and evoking feelings, describing relationships, you know, stuff singers sing about. And, similarly, his music is melodic, at times both pretty and depressing, well, rather moody, the way guys with guitars can get after getting deep into their music for a long time. Massey also sprinkles a bit of humor here and there, as on "Waiter," where he sings, "That's me, an epicure, just your waiter if you prefer, but one of these days, I'll take your place and make some other wretch endure the same hell you're putting me through, and be just a big a bourgeois pig as you." Can you say zing? Solid stuff, to be sure. www.nedmassey.com

You know, I put this disc on and went around cleaning up the room here, and I found it hard to distinguish one song from another. I thought my CD player was stuck on one-song repeat. The bad news is my CD player is just fine, which means I'm attacking the band's songwriting. Hailing from Connecticut, the six members manage to churn out an energetic rock, along the lines of bands like Faith No More. And, sure, they're tight as a band can get (or as ProTools can get a band), but melodically, there's just not a lot to interest me. And I'm sure I'll get a boatload of flack from fans who love the band (according to their press, the band is doing quite well, thank you), but I just couldn't get excited about the tunes. And that's where I'll leave it. See for yourself at www.gsoul.com

Sick of the blues? Angered that there's never anything new, and middle-aged beer-gutted gray-haired guys talk of Stevie Ray Vaughan and no one else? Well, how about a mix of blues and sampling? Alarmed? Interested? Well, whatever your take on the blues world, there will be changes, whether you like it or not, and Holmstrom is one of the new messengers. Oh sure, it's still the same old 1-4-5 progression, but with different beats, almost a melding of hip-hop and blues at points. It's energetic, and as I listen I can hear purists fuming (which, if you know any blues purists, is kind of funny to watch). Holmstrom is no slouch when it comes to playing guitar, and his leads are a treat to listen to. And though ultimately I'm not sure the melding of sampling or the feel of hip or trip hop and blues meld together too well, it's always nice to see guys trying new stuff. www.tonecool.com

If you were going by looks alone, you'd see these guys and say they were rock stars, no doubt about it. The good news is, they also play the part, coming through with a garage/rock-n-roll sound that has its roots in Motor City. If the Strokes, for example, descended from New York and the Velvet Underground, these lads follow the chain down from the MC5, Iggy Pop, et al. There's a rawness to the songs, combined with a youthful energy that just screams "rock" from start to finish. A song like "Girl From K.C." is an up-tempo number that makes my blood run, because on the one hand it reminds me of the past, and on the other, it's just plain fun. And that's pretty much the way the disc goes. You'll hear shades of the past, like Iggy, MC5, maybe even a tad of Ian Hunter, but the sound is beefy. It rocks hard, and this disc will be staying in the player for a while. www.thesuperbees.com

There's a glut of bands out there that play heavy-guitar, melodic rock, some of it good, some of it not, and Splender appear to fall into the good end of the spectrum. They're poppy all right, and the guitars do roar and crunch, but not so much as to obliterate the rhythm section. As a matter of fact, they have a drummer who pounds extremely hard, and that might be one of the reasons I like them so. Marc Slutsky pounds the skins – aggressively – even on some of the lighter fare. Along with bassist James Cruz, the foundation of the songs is solid. Another reason to like them is the now-and-again resemblance to XTC; it's indirect, to be sure, but it is there, not necessarily in the song construction, but in the sound, and it's a beautiful thing to listen to. But the boys are about rock, as the opener, "Happier This Way," will quickly show you. It's funky; it cooks, the kind of tune that plays over and over in your head. Good work guys. www.splender.com

Her letter to us begins, "I am a singer-songwriter-storyteller-flirt from Brooklyn," and I'm thinking, oy, another home-recording, rock-wannabe waitress who doesn't have friends that tell her she sucks. I am pleased as punch to report, however, that this image is quickly dispelled as her voice, angelic and with depth, graces my ears. The title cut has a real nice groove, like a good driving song, as it slowly builds up, dynamically rising and dropping in all the right parts. Hornik knows how to pen a song that is both interesting musically and lyrically, and complementing her is the excellent production on the album. There's a lot going on, many guitars, piano, you know the deal, but the sound altogether is just, dare I say, gorgeous. Coupled with the expert production, you get a disc that is soothing on the ears. Hornik may be to pop rock what Norah Jones is to jazz. We'll see. www.marlyhornik.com

Hey, about two seconds into the first cut, it's apparent that this is a power-pop band labeled punk along the lines of Blink 182 and Sum 41. Maybe the fact that they don't have numbers in the band's name tells you something, maybe not. And sure, they sound a lot like those two bands, like so many other bands today do, but as the songs go on, they seem a bit sharper on matters melodic, and they don't play as fast as other punk bands do. Well, it's quick, but the song and hooks appear more important than the speed needed to obliterate them. They also win this month's award for fattest press pack, indicating a push of some sort by the label (and thanks for two copies of the bio). The song stories are adolescent trials and tribulations, but for some reason – that I can't put my finger on – they seem genuinely nice about the music, no sneering attitudes, like they're having fun and know it. Maybe it's a Canadian thing, as they are from the northlands. Fun stuff. www.simpleplan.com

Remember all the buzz after Alanis Morisette's first disc came out? Chicks went nuts and guys got nervous, and the album sold tons mostly due to the anger and other emotions she displayed. Well, Buchanan is much like that, minus the nasal sneer, as her stories play out and the music charges on. The music itself is dark and troubling. Not weird or anything, but not straight-ahead rock-and-roll stuff either. Sparse in spots, chaotic in others, it gives the feeling of something amiss as Buchanan's vocals weave their way through the tunes. "Here With a Bruise" is a difficult song to listen to, because of the way the song speaks of abuse, with lines like "I'm here with a bruise because I need you to like me." Sheesh. There's a rawness that comes through, and you get the sense that Buchanan has been through the grinder, and has no intention of pulling punches ever again. If you have trouble listening to Morissette, either for the whiny voice or wordiness, you'll have trouble turning off Buchanan for the sear of her voice and precision of her language. www.kellybuchanan.com

After a few listens to the disc, you might think Lenny Kravitz without the edge, but I suspect that lack of edge is due to Saul Zonana recording this disc in his own home studio. Surely a big-time record-label studio would give it the gloss it deserves. That said, it's not hard to listen to his music, a kind of poppy rock and roll, but offset by the generous-yet-subdued use of keyboards. That's right, it's not a guitar-hero disc, though there are enough guitar bits to make the six-stringers happy. But the omniscient keys give the music a cool vibe. That is, this is more complex rock and roll (although that phrase may be an oxymoron). Listen to "Afraid of Dying," for example, and hear what I'm talking about. And though Zonana never rips it up, tempo wise, he knows the moderate-paced groove well, and exploits it. The songs grow on you, and that's a sign he's doing something right. www.saulzonana.com

Ah, to be 19 again. This youthful punk outfit from San Diego rides the coattails of bands like Blink 182 et al, infusing just a taste of ska here and there, and the 13 tunes are poppy enough that they won't offend your ears in the least. The band also tends to break up the usual verse-chorus arrangements with the occasional bridge or simply with dynamics to catch your ears, and it's successful. The only downside to this style of music, as even their own press points out, is there's already a glut of power-pop-punk bands now, why another one? They cite the songwriting, and I'd go along with that, as the tunes are better than average fare. The big question, I suppose, is staying power. Given the band members' ages (three 19s and a 21), and the saturation of pop punk, what does the future hold? Oh, I forgot for a minute what it's like to be 19. Fun stuff, though familiar. www.offbyoneonline.com

If you're the kind of person who plays acoustic guitar, and think that you're good at it, put it away now and listen to Montgomery. This whiz out of Austin, TX (where guitarists grow like cactuses, tall and sharp) will make you take a hammer to your fingers and read the want ads in search of a new career. He rips leads like all the greats, Hendrix, Beck, Van Halen, but again, on an acoustic Alvarez. On the title track, about three minutes in, he starts cutting loose, and I look over at my Martin and think I might toss it in the fireplace tonight. As for the songs, they're not your standard pop fare, more showcases to the upcoming pyrotechnics, but that's okay. Montgomery's fretwork is so diverse, slapping and popping and bending and all the other things you never do on an acoustic. His voice is good, and the songs are fine, but what takes your breath away is his playing. A must have for guitarists. www.montemontgomery.com

For those in the know, yes, it is that John Doe, he of X fame, a long time ago in a galaxy far away. And hearing his voice again, well, it's like reuniting with an old friend you haven't seen in 20 years. In fact, the last time I saw X was about 20 years ago, so there's a bit of truth in saying that. It's Doe's voice that has always interested me; at times it's plaintive, in spots it cracks and creaks, but there's never a second you doubt the conviction of what he's singing. And on this disc, that holds true as well, though he seems a bit more reserved, and indeed, the years might have taken some of the edge off. When you hear him, however, you know it's him. Supporting him on this disc include Jane Wiedlin (Go-Go's), Aimee Mann, Jakob Dylan (Wallflowers), to name a few. Lyrically, he retains the beauty and insight he's had all along, as on "Forever For You," where he intones, "You don't understand, I'd cut off my hands if they offend thee, I can't see why we can't see eye to eye, and it makes me wanna die." Though some may be tempted to label this alt-country (you'll find mandolin and pedal steel, after all), I'd venture rock and roll Americana, and leave it at that. This may be more for those who remember X, and who know Doe, since that feeling of nostalgia and familiarity are certainly influencing my vote, which is a hardy thumbs up. But if I'm partial, at least you know it upfront. That said, Dim Stars Bright Sky is a beautiful piece of work. www.thejohndoe.com