JEFFREY MORGAN'S MEDIA BLACKOUT #799.538.169!

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!