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Marble Index
Watch Your Candles Watch Your Knives
Rock Ridge Music
Combining the feral garage stomp of The Stooges and the punky melodicism of a young, tough Social Distortion, The Marble Index know how to tear their way through a song. Or, in the case of the Ontario power trio's debut album, twelve songs. And twelve great ones, at that. "Everyone Else" has all the power and fury the Strokes have yet to harness; "All That I Know" sounds like a more rapacious Walkmen and "We Always Complain" suggests The Ramones, circa Animal Boy. Singer Brad Germain has a dazzling deadpan of a delivery that's capable of a Bono-like intensity ("Same Schools") or twitchy new wave ("Let Me Be The One") and his understated vocal versatility is a real weapon here. Germain's bandmates, it should be pointed out (bassist Ryan Tweedle and drummer Adam Knickle) are a dependable and wondrous rhythm section, providing the singer with a rabid blend of post-punk and garage rock to play off. And play off them he does: the spiky "Not Impressed" is all muscle and nerve; "Same Old Lie" is pure dreamy stomp and the closer "Never Ends" is electric, unbridled and wild. A truly promising debut.
--Alex Green
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