The Unknown Pop Art
Whoa-oh-oh! Pop punk baby, yeah! Here we go! Here we go! Go! GO! Toss the microphone into the crowd and then sing along. It's all about staying positive and staying involved while staying deep underground. Whoa-oh-oh! Yeah! Jump around and sing real proud. These four Better Youth types will get you bopping and tapping your toes in no time. This release is put together well, is non-offensive and we as suburbanites can relate to the message, I guess, to a certain level. But it's all about busting down boundaries and bringing the voice deep down to the upper ground. Andy Warhol was right all along. Whoa-Oh-ohh… Yeah! Boss Tuneage MW

Unsung Zeroes Fading Out
Almost anyone can make music these days. It's incredible, the technology. I was over at this guy Hobie's house the other night in Wrigleyville, unwinding from the day, and we were listening to a disc of break beats a friend of his had made. Is he a DJ, I asked. No, just likes to create beats, he replied. Of course he does, I thought. And why not? It's becoming amazingly simple to be the next Chemical Brothers. If you can click a mouse, you can write a song. Later, Hobie played some songs he wrote on some Nintendo game, and they weren't bad. Everybody's doing it! Remember the debate over sampling a decade ago when critics dismissed songs built around samples? Seems like the Mesozoic era, doesn't it? Wow technology, where will you lead us next? Hopefully a place with cheese fries, cause I am starving. Distant Rise Records RG

Urban Legends (now known as Hutch and Kathy) The World Is Strange/Soak and Drown
There's been a name change and a new CD since this split single came out, and it'd be interesting to track it down just to see if this duo has moved away from the twee Kindercore sound that is now, um, so 1999. The jangly B-side, "Soak and Drown", is actually the better of the two tunes, and it surprised me that it was on the flip side. It is, simply put, the most pleasant slice of sparkling mid-'60s-esque pop I have heard in a long, long time. I hope these guys get to go onto more stuff, even though they could probably still improve on that name. No Karma Recordings ZH 4.15.2003