Grandma Moses

With their searing guitars and pulsating drums, this Vancouver five-piece prove themselves to be the bastard children of groups like the Dead Boys and New York Dolls. They can be a little crass at times, but they mask it in melody, and then pump it up with pure energy. The band members habitually sound as if they are battling one another, and the singer unleashes an occasional falsetto that recalls the best of ’80s metal. Grandma Moses revels in glorious violence; "Death To The Sixties” is about killing all those hated bands that the original punks rebelled against. Yet these fine young men pay tribute to their more favourable elders with songs such as "Working Class Whores” and "Chinese Rocks.” "Chinese Rocks” doesn’t veer too far from the original, but it is a louder, faster version, it is also the first of many drug odes which are either punk rock posturing or serious chemical problems which rival that of a young Lou Reed. There are lighter moments, such as "Don’t Worry,” a sad heartbreak song, but they don’t skimp on the beats so you can still dance to it.