Suck My Shirt

The absence of keyboardist Candice Jones combined with the remaining players’ increased instrumental skills have turned this Atlanta-based garage-punk trio into a lean machine that’s gone from sheer, offensive novelty to a serious entity capable of dramatic intensity. Their three previous albums show a band high on energy and bratty insouciance, but Suck My Shirt (its title aside) delivers a less confrontational band than you might expect. They’re still big on unison vocals and bleeding their natural live sound of amplifier feedback into their studio recordings, but the songs here largely deal with the broken hearts that every songwriter finds themselves coming to terms with at some point in their career. Except here, drummer Stephanie Luke, bassist Meredith Franco, and guitarist Julia Kugel never allow for self-pity. No, their music is still about being aggressive (“Smother,” “Dead Battery”) and even a touch tongue-in-cheek (“Love ‘Em and Leave ‘Em”). They understand that the band with the best songs and freshest riffs can have their other shortcomings forgiven. It is punk rock, after all.