Replay: Girls Against Boys, Cruise Yourself, 1994

Conventional wisdom states that good things come in threes, but for most rock bands, two is plenty (if not overkill). Take guitars, for example; in all but the most extreme cases, a lead and a rhythm will get the job done. On top of that, the Grateful Dead had two drummers, which made for extra-trippy renditions of "Space" (good) and cleared the way for Mickey Hart's Planet Drum (bad). According to this week's "Kick Out the Jams," Little Richard has two of everything--although that's more than likely a compensation for shortcomings in other areas. But Batimore's Girls Against Boys took the least likely instrumental redundancy--two electric basses--and turned the increasingly self-conscious preening of East Coast punk into a white-knuckle confession of subconscious rage.

Even "Explicitly Yours," one of two identifiable love songs on 1994's Cruise Yourself, has a note of hidden danger. "When you want something in life you've got to ask for it/ Just open up your mouth and say please." Layered atop the subterranean grind of competing bass lines, frontman Scott McCloud's rasped vocals promise either a kiss or a closed fist--and either way it's going to be hard. The same is true of "Psychic Know-How," which augments the underlying menace with electro-trance rhythms and repeated vocals: "You know what I like/ You know what I like/ Your infinite sexiness your royal highness."

Repetition, in fact, is at the center of Girls Against Boys' unsettling aesthetic. Like the creepy loner talking to himself in line at the grocery store, McCloud always seems on the verge of violence, whether against himself or someone nearby. At times, he sounds like the indie-rock incarnation of Travis Bickle--particularly on the album's climactic single, "Kill the Sexplayer": "Kill that noise/ Make it alright/ Kill the drummer/ Kill the bass player/ Kill both bass players." Self-destruction is the goal, and it's our privilege to witness the decline. Can we do it again?--Newt Briggs