THE DEARS

No Cities Left

(spinART)

****
The second full-length from Montreal ensemble the Dears is too good for grownups, with their thick hides and repressed emotions; this is an album tailor-made for bright, alienated adolescents. Which is not to imply it is in any way immature. Au contraire, these 11 songs unfold like mini-symphonies, each broken up in several distinct movements. "22: The Death of All Romance" starts off like the Clash in zero gravity, awash in reverberating guitars and loping beats, then swells with scenic grandeur as the strings come in, and winds down its six-minute journey with a passage of funky organ. "Expect the Worst/'Cos She's a Tourist" is more ambitious still, quickly scaling heights of baroque agitation pitched somewhere between "Bohemian Rhapsody" and Carl Orff's Carmina Burana (you know, that classical warhorse they always rip off for horror movie soundtracks like The Omen), but later tapering off into a jazzy arrangement for brass and winds, and concluding with an isolated, three-note guitar lick. Through it all, bandleader and composer Murray A. Lightman pours his heart into every performance, singing with the unfettered passion of a man adrift on an iceberg in a stormy sea. He wafts into falsetto one moment, brutally shreds his chords the next, and can express sentiments like "I thought I was crazy 'cos you told me so" and pull it off. Despite its ambitious scope, No Cities Left never falters. It strikes a balance between artifice and raw honesty that yields richly rewarding results. KURT B. REIGHLEY

PIG DESTROYER

Terrifyer

(Relapse)

***
Judging by the content of Pig Destroyer vocalist J. R. Hayes' lyrics and short stories (the latter of which accompany each of the band's last two Relapse albums), dude is about one messy breakup away from cutting an ear off--and not necessarily his own, either. Whereas 2001's Prowler in the Yard protagonist popped pills and severed digits (his own) with a bolt cutter while stroking a handgun outside his ex-girlfriend's house, Terrifyer's "Natasha"--a 37-minute DVD-audio track recorded in surround sound--sees its title character morph into a flesh-eating zombie after being fingered (and bitten) by her dead boyfriend (also a flesh-eating zombie). Also: PxDx's rarities/covers collection, released earlier this year on Robotic Empire, is called Painter of Dead Girls. Cue the Psycho shower-scene music if you want, but at least Hayes is consistent. Terrifyer blitzkriegs like "Restraining Order Blues," "Pretty in Casts," and "Verminess" are variations on the same decidedly morbid theme, as evidenced by lyrics like "the bullet hole looks so right in your head, like it'd been missing all along." Oookaaay, dude. Speaking of certifiable, PxDx guitarist/producer Scott Hull (also of grind commandos Agoraphobic Nosebleed) obviously isn't taking whatever meds he's supposed to be on to prevent him from transforming into a Total Fucking Riff Machine. One listen to precision 90-second thrash workouts like "Gravedancer," "Thumbsucker," and "Carrion Fairy"--not to mention the Slayer-style solo on "Towering Flesh"--and you'll wonder how Hull makes it through a recording session without breaking a wrist. With 21 tracks compressed into a blinding 32 minutes (plus 37 more with "Natasha"), Terrifyer is the fastest, sickest, most satisfying stalker movie never made. J. BENNETT

BOOKS ON TAPE

The Business End

(Greyday Productions)

***
You know those people who say they like all kinds of music? They're liars. But Books on Tape (Todd Drootin) really does seem to like everything--and he samples damn near all of it in his helter-skelter, crazy-quilt compositions. The Business End is the third album from this L.A.-based producer who paid his dues "programming beats for MTV" (huh?). Drootin's zeal for Rock in Opposition-style prog rock, post-punk Residents, Pere Ubu, post-bop jazz, and frenetic Tigerbeat6-style sampladelia lends his music an unhinged, slapstick aura. It's a curious mixture of the circus-like and the scientific, without tipping too far in either direction. His Dadaist approach to sampling results in novelty music for high-IQ'd geeks. It's impossible to be bored by The Business End's mercurial tempo changes, broad sound palette, and disorienting song structures. In this case, more is more. DAVE SEGAL

AQUEDUCT

Pistols at Dawn EP

(Barsuk)

***
Like both the Starlight Mints and the Postal Service, Seattle-based duo Aqueduct turn an indie-rock foundation into an electronic expedition that launches the band into new realms of stargazing dream pop. On this, Aqueduct's first release, Tulsa native David Terry has teamed up with multi-instrumentalist Andrew Rudd to create a sparkling collection of electronically orchestrated tracks that cloud-hop among desert twang, Flaming Lips-like brainbenders, simple piano balladry, and junkyard electrofunk.

At the forefront of the music, though, is Terry's wry sense of humor, shown on songs like "As Close as Your Girlfriend Is Far Away" with the lines, "I hope you know I'm as close as your girlfriend is far away/and I have every interest in getting in the way/well that's just how the game is played these days./Too bad for you, pricks like me, well they come and go every day/they wreck your fucking life and fuck your wife and run away/until the day I die I'll always stay that way." Terry's refusal to bow to the delicate side of lyricism adds a cynical grit to the glossier moments of Aqueduct's pop, and only lodges the catchier elements further into your consciousness. In only five songs, Aqueduct conduct an attention to eclectic electropop that shows great promise for full-lengths to come. JENNIFER MAERZ

Aqueduct's CD release party with United State of Electronica, Travis Morrison, and Something for Rockets is Sat Oct 30 at the Crocodile, $10 adv./$12 DOS, 9 pm.

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