Staff pick of the week...
This week...Jim picks it!

Artist: KVLR Title: KVLR Price: $13.00	Tracks on this CD:
	Last Rhyme
	Fed On The Hook
	Slow Clapping
	Spit
	The Red Bulletin
	Traitors and Thieves
	Road Closure
	Birthcam
	Whitewash
	What's Left Belongs To No One

A Northern Sweden guitar juggernaut weaned on American hardcore, postpunk, and postrock, KVLR has transcended their influences, and their third album sports a collective off-the-charts indierock IQ. Brains and brawn it turns out, because this also the sound of Interpol and their ilk getting an asskicking…aggressive and apocalyptic and retro in regards to the glory days of Amphetamine Reptile and Dischord. Déjà vu so thick it’s intoxicating, protean postpunk exploiting luminous melodies, breakneck rhythms, and industrial-strength dissonance, all rendered with alarming humanity. Space rock reveries mingling with apocalyptic rock, delirious gang harmonies and instrumental passages so savage and tribal, you’d swear GY!BE was hiding out in there somewhere. If you can withstand the awesome power of “Slow Clapping” let me know! I could go on and on, but really the press has been doing all the talking this past month…

Filter Magazine: “Welcome to the world of KVLR, a Scandinavian band who play wall-of-sound-rock with the kind of energy that knocks around in your head until you pass out from sheer exhaustion. The drums on [“Slow Clapping”] pound like a factory line, and the chorus is a maelstrom of pop purity as backing vocals bend and shift into a My Bloody Valentine-like state of reverie… By recording most of their material live, KVLR allow the spatial arrangements of post-rock to infiltrate the energy of post-punk and the textural beauty of shoegazing. The end result is a strong amalgam of some of the best music that can be made with guitars.”

High Bias: “Postpunk as a style, rather than a timeframe, is best heard and recognized rather than described. That said, KVLR (formally Kevlar) should be in the music dictionary in place of a definition of postpunk. The quartet recalls the glory days of Gang of Four, Wire, Mission of Burma and even Sonic Youth with infectious enthusiasm and subtle melodicism. Plus KVLR is Swedish and has that magic Nordic pixie dust with which every other band from the region seems to be sprinkled.”

All Music Guide: “The band's admitted influence by bands like Chavez, Swervedriver, Sonic Youth shine through, as the foursome embraces dynamic guitar and feedback, showcasing an uncanny cohesiveness from beginning to end. Opening with the churning frenzy of "“Last Rhyme," the band maintains a blistering pace through most of the disc.”