Syncopated. Disjointed. Start. Stop. Choppy. And, no, I'm not trying to be a Beat poet. It's just the effect that this quartet out of the Motor City has on me. Their music -- well, more of a sonic assault -- is as interesting as it is a structured chaotic mess. Guitar chords hacking like a Ginsu knife through a tomato. Whining, nerdy vocals that fit surprisingly well. A jangling, spacey guitar that harkens of Tom Verlaine. A tin can. It's like what you hear in your head before you check into the psych ward. Sure, they're energetic, and that appeals to me. But you need to eat your Wheaties to listen to this stuff. This is the kind of music that's hard to take at first, but once it grows on you, it sticks. An acquired taste, so to speak. www.rescuedotcom.com

First off, ain't no salsa here, no mariachi band, nothing like it. This is garage rock, through and through, only the garage happens to be in Norway. As always, when rock and roll is delivered from across the pond, something funky seems to happen. It shifts ever so slightly -- it's familiar, yet so different. And CSE manage to update the garage sound, in spots with a funkified beat and keyboards that veer toward Beck country, other times simply a wash of reverb completes the job. There's a good chance the band will become critics' darlings, much like the White Stripes and the Hives have, since as of late the masses seem to be surfing the garage sound. But, hey, it sounds fresh. It's a load of fun. And what else you got to do? www.emperornorton.com

Taking their lyrical direction and inspiration from horror films, the Murderdolls pound out fast metal, with gruff vocals that sound somewhat like a hyper-caffeinated Alice Cooper. Yet it's Slipknot's Joey Jordison and Static X's Tripp Eisen who form the nucleus, and the result is a hard-charging, relentless attack on the ears. It's an interesting mix, with influences that range from the aforementioned Cooper to latter-day stars like Marilyn Manson, with its blend of Goth, punk and metal. At heart, there's a kind of glam-rock undercurrent, as if the boys are winking at you while they're playing. It doesn't sound as hardcore as Slipknot, though the lyrics still maintain a sociopathic bent. You'll find inviting song titles like, "Motherfucker, I Don't Care," and other numbers like "Love at First Fright," which has poppy hooks while blending punk and an '80s metal sound. These guys are okay by me. www.roadrunnerrecords.com

From the name I half expected a Lou Reed knockoff, but this band from New Jersey pumps out upbeat pop rock along the lines of the Smiths or the Cure. They're just a trio, so the sound isn't that big, and they didn't go crazy on the effects or get lost wandering on psychedelic street, but the mix is good enough, the sound big enough, and you can hear the vocals just fine. Balance, sensei, is what it's all about. And while the numbers may not be attention grabbing right off the bat, they do tend to seep in after a while, as songs of this genre are ought to do. A few spots sound minor league, your typical bar-band musical movement, and at times you can hear a U2 influence, but overall, it's a good effort. www.whaleblueeye.com

Hey, free stickers! That's the first thing I thought when I opened this disc (you make a critic's day with crap like free keychains and pens, believe me). Lead singer Vis, you may or may not know, was formerly with the Outpatients, and on this disc he drives down the electric avenue, like a modern-day Kraftwerk. And while there may not be any earth-shattering cuts here (it is hard to get jacked up over electronica, at least for this listener), there's a soothing feeling coming over me as the disc plays. This is low-key stuff, laid back. It just hums right along. Good potion for a hangover. A song like "Inner Strength" starts out a little industrial, but soon sounds like a video game track. Anyway, it's kind of cool stuff. www.vishelland.com

Now here's a band that's out of Brooklyn, and after listening several times, I am still amazed. Where do these guys come from? Well, sure, I just told you Brooklyn, but I mean in the larger sense. So much crap on the radio and TV, and then here comes Driver X, in spots like Wilco, here and there Oasis (if they were American). As for the songs, on the first cut, "Highway," when you hear the opening arpeggio of the guitar chords, you're hooked. There's a simplicity and pop sensibility that seem easy to do (i.e., sit down, bang away a few chords, collect royalty checks). So many bands try for it, but fail. And then all the indie bands that do write well, for some reason, are relatively obscure. Maybe I'm rambling, but it's one of the great mysteries of life. Anyhoo, get Driver X. End of story. www.driverxmusic.com

Now here's some fun stuff. From Holland, come the Travoltas with their sixth full release, a mixture of power pop and punk, with a healthy dose of '60s surf rock tossed in. Yeah, that's right. You'll get shades of Weezer, Blink 182, the Ramones, and the Beach Boys, all rolled into one nifty package. And, again, it's that across-the-pond-and-then-some twist on rock and roll that will make you giddy. On "Let's Go Away," for example, the guitars are heavy, big melodic vocal hooks, a synth playing single notes that swell here and there, and all you can think of is a bunch of nerdy guys making fun music. Well, they may or may not be nerdy, but the music is just so much fun in a clean-cut kind of way. There's no sneering attitude vibe to be had, just a geeky snickering feel to the music that's bound to cheer you up. It did me. www.travoltas.com

Here's another pop-rock gem, this time from a band out of Connecticut. Their style is rather simple, as are the songs. There are no studio gimmicks, no bells and whistles. It seems they simply learned to play their instruments and went about writing good pop songs. Tracks range from the rocky "Me on Top," a burner clocking in at just over three minutes, to longer fare like "Together," which at over eight minutes won't see a whole lotta airplay, despite its prettiness. It's hard to categorize these guys. There is a slight Brit sound in there, but no feel of pretension, more like this is a guidebook for how to make a band. And it's that direct approach to the music that is stumping me for words. There's a certain feel to the music, a kind of troubadour mentality, that this is what they do, and do well. Am I rambling again? Oh well, check them out at www.thescrewdrivers.com

This is the first band signed to the new label by Everclear's Art Alexakis, and if you like Everclear's style of rock, you'll love Flipp. Part glam rock, part Cheap Trick, Flipp show the listener that pop metal can be fun. The guitars are heavy, the drums pound, the bass throbs, and a feeling of giddiness pervades throughout. A quick check of their website shows the band likes to dress up and use makeup, but don't let the glamour fool you; these guys can play and sing. "La Dee Da," a raucous mixture of Queen and Kiss, features some kick-ass playing, along with multi-layered vocal harmonies. A song like "Cock Rock" shouldn't need explanation. There's a heavy Bolanesque sound to that one too. Similarly, "I Still Love Rock 'n' Roll" should be easy to guess, well as far as lyrically, and it's one of the better tracks on the disc. From start to finish, this disc is a blast. www.flippcentral.com

If you sat around listening to stuff like the Grateful Dead, America, the Doobie Brothers, the Allman Brothers, and decided to form a band, chances are you'd sound like Last Generation. There's a mid-'70s FM rock sound to them, which isn't bad at all (unless you get flooded with memories of the mid-'70s, and that's a whole other story). It's a sound that's light and clean, and verges close to Christian rock nowadays (excluding the Christian metal bands). The songs drift by like a lazy stream, lots of guitars, with an especially active slide guitar that's quite good, thick vocal harmonies and all. They seem like a nice bunch of guys. A song like "Next Step" breaks the mold of the songs that preceded it, starting like a cross between Al DiMieola and Santana, giving way to a white funk that's not easy on the ears. The title track is smoother, and probably territory where the band should continue to mine. www.lastgenerationmusic.com

On the back cover of the CD is a picture of some beat-up guitar knobs. Inside, you'll see pictures of the band with Danelectro and Silvertone guitars. Take that as a good sign. Next, a trip to the website finds this is the band's seventh release. Put the two together, and either they haven't sold squat to buy shiny new guitars, or they play for fun, and concentrate on the songwriting. The latter is obviously the case after a listen, which finds a nifty blend of pop elements, where you might hear shades of NRBQ, acoustic Paul Westerberg, Marshall Crenshaw, and others who write great songs. But it is original through and through, a basic, rootsy approach to rock and roll, the kind of band that is known locally for years, and when you find out about them you think, duh, where have I been? The only downer is the disc is too short (only one tune over three minutes), but that just means you can play it more. www.raymason.com

At least there's nothing grandiose about the band name or CD title, eh? Well, UDM are actually just two people, Tom Mody and Jeffrey Harris, and their music is an interesting blend of heavy metal and techno (or at least a lot of studio trickery). Both Mody and Harris have been together since the late '80s, and their website offers glimpses into their musical past. As for "Smash Hits," I'll have to take that title with a grain of salt, as I wasn't smashed. Production is a bit messy in spots, and the metal sound looks back in time to the big-hair bands of the eighties. Combined with the pulsing of drum machines and other digital bits and pieces, the sound may gel, but not for me. It's kind of like they have good ideas, but the execution wasn't quite up to par. Ah well, practice makes perfect. www.marsdictators.com

Jarvis Church, who was nominated for a Grammy for production on Nelly Furtado's disc, knows his stuff. I say that because this disc just snapped out of the speakers when I put it on. Church's sound may have a pervasive Jamaican feel to it (it is, after all, where he's from), but you'll hear as much Bob Marley as you will Prince when his vocals travel far north into falsetto country. And when he remains in his normal range, his voice is like, as they say, "buttah." Silky and smooth, it's an inviting voice that you follow from note to note as he careens about the songs. One minor annoyance, however, is the grooves almost overshadow his pipes, like on "Run For Your Life," where the pulsing and pumping of beats threaten to bury him. Hey, I even turned off the subwoofer just to make sure. Maybe he just needs a little confidence. Nitpicking aside, it's a good disc, and worth checking out. www.jarvischurch.com

Here comes a band out of NYC that is just balls-to-the-wall fun. Sure, their sound changes with every song, moving from moody Brit pop to Orange County punk, but they sound zany, and their website reaffirms their sense of humor. They have big loud guitars, and a horn section (take that, Blink 182), oh yeah, and keyboards, and they write lyrics like, "Dim the lights! Let's settle this with lotion," an ode to male self-abuse of the good kind. Their approach to music reminds me of the Tubes and Devo, where the musicians are always trying to one-up each other musically and with humor. As a result, some pretty smart stuff gets created. At the heart of it all, it's good basic pop, sugar coated and dusted off with distortion. Fun stuff. www.conquistadornyc.com

Far be it from me to call myself a know-it-all, and when it comes to reggae, well, it's probably a category on Jeopardy where I wouldn't win too much cash. Yet there's something calming about that reggae beat, the chinking of the guitar chords on the 2 and the 4, that just relaxes you. Jahmings Maccow, who has been around in various shades and forms since the late '70s, offers a disc that isn't full-blown reggae either, with some R&B, jazz, even hip-hop inflections and nuances, all popping up here and there. There are some beautiful moments with female backing vocals as well, as on the title track, for instance. And, who knows, maybe reggae purists will scoff at the various styles here, but hey, I like it. It calms me, and if you want to chill a bit, trow da disc on mon. www.rebelsproduction.com

The disc opener, "Invisible," is a kind of throbbing, pulsing, rock number, that's accessible and easy on the ears. Down right purdy, in fact. But the second track, "Evolution 101," has a thin sound, a kind of white-boy-funk thing to it that sounds like an average bar band. What does track three hold in store? A poppy little number, but with so much compression I think I have a hearing problem. Then the fourth cut, "Vision," positively booms out of the speakers. So the disc may be a bit uneven, but then again, if you gave a chimp an uzi (see band name), life would be dicey for a while. Their sound is kind of college-frat rock stuff, more rocking than Dave Matthews, harder than, say, Blind Melon, but not as rough as Pearl Jam. A folkier Counting Crows perhaps. Studio mishaps aside, a good first effort. www.monkeyswithguns.com

Shoot, man, I swear, I've seen more white reggae bands come out of Ithaca, NY than I can shake a spliff at, and here comes another one. Now, it's not that it's a bad thing, and there has been some good music, but it's a hard nut to swallow. It's like finding out Britney can't sing live, you just don't know whom to trust anymore. Yeah, these fellas can play the groove okay, but unless you want to be inundated with religious lyrics, you might want to move on. There's a bit of wackiness here -- song titles in the liner are followed with "concept and text by," so it's not just words and music, but something deeper. I can sense a real nasty sarcastic side of me about to emerge, so I'll just leave it at this. The groove and jams are okay, lyrics are tough to swallow, and other than that, you're on your own. Oh, and their website never loaded for me (and I have DSL). www.theuplifters.com

"Instrumental rock from NYC" begins the press page, and I'm thinking, are you out of your frigging mind? Nobody plays instrumental rock in this town, or any town, any more. Didn't you get the memo? But then the opener, "Sigurd the Dragon," starts playing away, and I'm thinking back to the days when songs didn't have time limits to make airplay, when bands like Rainbow had a heavy, organ-based rock thing going on, and all of a sudden I'm lost in the music. The cool thing about these songs is the movement, that the instrumentals don't sound like snippets for segments on Sportscenter, and that they really cook. The bass sound in particular is big and heavy, and you can really feel the weight of the strings. Big plus also goes to the Fender Rhodes/Hammond B-3 work of keyman Matt Holford. Guitarist Jake Garcia is a riot, and drummer Chad Royce pounds the skins like he's on a mission. The most fun I've had in a long time. www.darediablo.com