Dirty Faces - Superamerican

Their live shows are messy affairs, but their albums contain surprising moments of quiet lucidity. While they're equally influenced by both American and British art punk (The Fall, Pere Ubu) and 70's classic rock (Led Zepplin, ZZ Top), along with a healthy admiration for the primal rock of Iggy & the Stooges, AC/DC, and everything hip-hop, they manage to boil these influences down to something at once recognizable yet wholly their own. The songs on this, their third release, span a wide range of stylistic and emotional reference points from the spastic no-wave to the quiet, Beat Happening-esque, to the lighters-held-high stadium anthems.