JEFFREY MORGAN’S MEDIA BLACKOUT #538.169!

Ladyhawk – Shots (Jagjaguwar) :: I’m deeply offended by the back cover photo that shows four naked guys in a shower spitting water at each other. Real men would have butch-slapped it on the front.

The Cansecos – Juices! (Upper Class) :: José, can you hear?

Bullet For My Valentine – Scream Aim Fire (Red Ink) :: This double-time thrash rock gets bonus points for having a singer not a screamer and guitars that pack a potent Bruce-Buxton punch.

The Exit Strategy – City Of Microphones (One Percent Press) :: Purebred punk playing with an art rock patina that sounds as if it came straight outta 1977.

Steve Dawson – Waiting For The Lights To Come Up (Black Hen) :: It’s not every day that you hear a blues album which begins with eerie backwards sounds, but that just goes to show you how creative Steve is—and this smart new record of his cleans Dylan’s Modern Times clock.

SIZZLING PLATTER OF THE WEEK: Cadence Weapon – Afterparty Babies (Upper Class) :: CW’s second album features more urban speed-raps, all aligned against a percolating background of surgically sutured Euro synthesizer beats and Oswaldian altered samples. The last time I heard a pop song that was as surrealistically snappy as CW’s “Real Estate” was on the unjustly much-maligned McCartney 2. And what’s wrong with that? I’d like to know.

SIZZLING MAD PLATTER OF THE WEEK: Local H – 12 Angry Months (Shout! Factory) :: These guys are so royally pissed-off that they oughtta call themselves LOCO H instead. But who wouldn’t be seriously burned over a love gone as hideously wrong as the one described in this 12-track, month-by-month diary? Listen in and you’ll hear cautionary lyrics like: “Give me my Zeppelin CDs! You know you took ’em! I know you did! Where’s all my Kyuss records? You never liked ’em until you met me!” And that’s just January; wait until you get to October and “Machine Shred Wrestling.” Hoo boy...

Be seeing you!