The Beltholes
For Whom the Beltholes
Burn Burn Burn Records (2007)
By Red Lehman

I had no idea how to start this review. I considered an analogy to being “on the last belt hole” after eating too much turkey or mentioning that the album has a sample of “Stayin’ Alive,” mentions Eddie and the Cruisers and ends with the word “cocaine” and a cat’s meow. None of these sounded opener-worthy.

Thankfully, when the band took the stage during a recent Tractor Tavern appearance, guitarist Kurt Bloch summed it up nicely: “If the last song wasn’t your thing, then your song is coming up next.”

The Pack A.D. is a duo from British Columbia championing the old-skool sound. Each track on their 2007 release Tintype, on Vancouver's Mint Records, is a blast of raw emotion and minimalist technique.

Maya Miller & Becky Black, drums and guitar/vocals respectively, have managed to bring together a unique vision for the tried-and-true duo-rock approach (White Stripes, Black Keys, The Shotgun). They keep it simple and maintain a blues ethos that could be traced straight back to the likes of Robert Johnson by way of Howlin Wolf, Etta James, Tammy Wynette, and Chan Marshall.

The Oswald Effect
Battle Hymns of the Fifth Column
[Self Released; 2007]

The Oswald Effect capture a broad range of influences and come out the other end with a unique blend of cool on their self-released debut LP Battle Hymns of the Fifth Column. The album is a dark jest at the power of money and the corruption of humanity, on which T.O.E. tackle a bizarre array of grim topics – from incest to assassination – in an eleven-song tongue twister.

T.O.E.’s sound is rich with the warm crunch of loudly ringing guitars. Heath Bauer’s vocals are insanely raw at times, swinging from crawling word play into jaguar screams at the drop of a sixteenth note.