Listening Station: The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Polyphonic Spree, !!!, Alkaline Trio/One Man Army, Junior Boys

The Dillinger Escape Plan

Miss Machine

If bebop had sprung from the fang-lined womb of heavy metal instead of claiming distant cousinhood to the blues, you'd have something like the Dillinger Escape Plan. The New Jersey quintet has pioneered--some say perfected--the dark art known as math rock, soldering mind-melting technical virtuosity to post-hardcore blargh. Daresay Dillinger's musical sensibility is not unlike that of prog-rockers of old. In this case, however, wizardry obeys a tendency to expand not outward--think the ocean-wide compositions of a Rush or a King Crimson--but inward. Dillinger gorges itself on density and infill, cramming in beats and asides, building rooms within rooms within rooms, all making for songs that sound like primal scream therapy crossed with honors trig.

At least that was the band's rep after its last release, 1999's Calculating Infinity, a progcore masterpiece that inspired a following cultish in its devotion--a cultishness whose intensity only grew when fans realized Dillinger could pull off this shit live, too. Such frothing followers might not know what to make of Miss Machine. It presents Dillinger with a new singer, Greg Puciato, and a stepping back from the calc-rock insanity for something with more swagger and heft. There are hooks. There's singing. There's melody. (And, yes, still plenty of blood-sweating, off-time freakouts.) Dillinger has always amazed; now--the cheeseball idiom must be embraced--the band rocks. Miss Machine depicts a Dillinger that's matured if not mellowed, one that values musicality as much as mathematical precision.

Into the beautiful mess: "Highway Robbery" starts in with a drum-tight hardcore hustle and then cracks wide open into an high-kicking strut with Puciato singing--yes, singing--every ounce a goddamn rock star. The subterranean "Phone Home" and "Unretrofied" slither along--like NIN re-animated--and take violent wing at tightrope choruses. The fact that Puciato can carry a vocal line, with anything from a sneer to a thuggy shout, seems to have lent the band a new confidence with melody (sometimes too much--"Setting Fire to Sleeping Giants" sounds frighteningly radio-ready). But devotees should know that Dillinger hasn't graduated into fatuousness: "Baby's First Coffin" sounds like trying to stuff prank snakes back into their cans while a bomb's countdown timer ticks. Miss Machine is guilelessly listenable math-rock--but don't think you're getting off without any homework.--Andrew Kiraly

The Polyphonic Spree

Together We're Heavy

An overview of any art form will reveal that elation is not easily projected--especially in pop music, where heartache and teen angst have always been the themes of preference. So for the Dallas-based, alt-choral collective the Polyphonic Spree to evoke genuine joy and uplift is an accomplishment. It did just that with its oft-licensed singles "Light & Day" and "It's the Sun," but on its second album, Together We're Heavy, its sense of joy is undercut by two shortcomings--a lack of musical progression and banal songwriting. For all the Spree's instrumental comprehension, its compositions aren't very dynamic or innovative; imagine a more whitewashed version of the Flaming Lips. Furthermore, the melodies tend to fall flat, emulate the band's older material or just get lost in the gleeful bombast. An exception is "Hold Me Now," which sounds like the Beatles trying to buy the world a Coke. Otherwise, give us something new to be happy about.--Mike Prevatt

!!!

Louden Up Now

According to a sticker on the cover of Louden Up Now, !!! is pronounced by quickly repeating a random sound three times in a row. At the moment, the preferred syllable is chik (thus, chik chik chik), but it could easily evolve into snork or pip or--a personal fave--milf. The symbol-turned-name was inspired by the English subtitles to The Gods Must Be Crazy, which represented the bushmen's clucking language with a series of three exclamation points. How very clever, no?

The same kind of cleverness seeps out of !!!'s full-length debut, which is a discotheque riot of handclaps, wokka-wokka guitars and horn blasts. On the best tracks ("Me and Giuliani Down by the Schoolyard (A True Story)," "Shit Scheisse Merde" and "Hello? Is This Thing on?"), Justin VanDerVolgen punches out a funky bass line while frontman Nic Offer vamps with the postmodern panache of David Byrne. It's groovy in the best way--like Average White Band if it woke up one morning and discovered it was actually quite exceptional. Unfortunately, the jams don't always hold together, and a few of the filler tracks never quite make it to the bridge. Still, Louden Up Now is chock-full of flavorful bits and more than sufficient proof that when !!! learns to hit it and quit it, they'll be a dance-punk force to be reckoned with.--Newt Briggs

Junior Boys

Last Exit

After a few minutes fiddling around with GarageBand--Apple's digital music composition software--it's clear that the main problem with electronic music is one of virtuosity (or, rather, a lack thereof). With GarageBand's built-in samples and loops, an armchair arranger can turn out slow jams and funk joints that would make the Ohio Players' ears smoke. Sure, this is wonderful for the everyday audiophile, but it's also a potent reminder of electronic music's Achilles' heel: Anybody can do it. And while this may have the revolutionary potential to wrest music from the suffocating tentacles of the corporate and the gifted, it's also very, very unsexy.

The Junior Boys overcome this weakness with a minimalist elan reminiscent of Philip Glass. Using only synthesizers and a drum machine, the Canadian trio crafts a record as stark, sublime and downright chilly as a glacier. As frontman Jeremy Greenspan opines about loneliness and lost love, Last Exit unfolds like a bipolar lullaby--in the process, revealing electro-pop's potential in capable, literate hands. It's the album Billy Corgan would have made if he had boycotted guitars for being too phallic. It's the album Talk Talk would have made if they hadn't been sullied by the '80s. It's the kind of album you couldn't make with GarageBand if you tried.--Newt Briggs

Alkaline Trio/One Man Army

BYO Split Series, Volume V

For all the romantic defeatism and gallows humor in its lyrics, Alkaline Trio crafts some of the most hopeful and invigorating music of the punk/emo scene. Its six inclusions--including a Damned cover--on the fifth Better Youth Organization (BYO) Records split aren't among its best songs, but they're not the usual compilation leftovers, either. Leadoff track "Fine Without You," for example, is a typical Matt Skiba post-breakup track--brutally honest, dismissive and anthemic. Sharing the disc is another melody-oriented, lyrically compelling punk trio--Bay Area-based One Man Army. It, too, can relay the bleakest of stories yet back it up with some good ol'-fashioned rock idealism. "I.F.H.A. (One Love)" celebrates its Clash influences while singer Jack Dalyrymple croons about his uncompromised independence with raspy affirmation: "I broke my favorite guitar and I've got no money to eat/I wouldn't trade it for anything...not me." A solid pairing for a solid split.--Mike Prevatt