Deap Vally - Sistrionix

Another drum/guitar duo à la White Stripes or Japandroids - only this time with two chicks. Let me start by telling you what they're not.

There's no Black Keys retro blues. this is garage rock. DV is also much more deliberately timed and groovy, unlike the upbeat rah-rah punkiness of Japandroids. You'll get a old school first White Stripes album feel, but clearly guitarist Lindsay lacks the chops or lyrical wordplay of even a young Jack White.

Vocally, Lindsay can roam from a Sleater-Kinney scream to a Geddy Lee screech to sometimes a more Alabama Shakes soul wail when she tries ("Six Feet Under"), but usually- they keep it sleazy and in the basement. I'd be quickest to compare the two to Band Of Skulls with a less-classic-rock songwriting structure.

I'm giving the biggest props for this record to Lars Stalfors. An engineer/producer for Mars Volta, the sound of these two is really fucking sick. The drums echo like Bonham's and the guitar fuzzes like the best of 1972. And the drummer Julie is a quality beatsmith. The song structure doesn't often give her a chance to shine, but "Lies" below is a good example of what she's capable of.

While this will probably be the best time live that many girls will be able to account for, (girls give girl musicians a lot more credit than girl musicians deserve sometimes), I'm still holding back my review here. The record suffers from first-timer's simple youth songwriting. And I'd like to see Lindsay develop her voice and playing. Either that or develop one and hire a third to cover. Whatever happened to that girl from Be Your Own Pet? (3 of 5 stars)