Geisha Girls

If you still have a few hairs left that haven't been pulled out in irritation at the mention of yet another Cure/JoyDivision/Wire-groping combo, that comb-over will be flapping when you dig into these Killers-in-training.

Yes, they've got those '80s machinations we've been smacked upside the head with of late. But these sneering snots waste no time mugging those post-punk pillagers with scathing Ginsu guitars, neck-snapping rhythms, and jagged bridges that whiplash back into the verse.

Shawn Roberts' faux Brit accent is probably inevitable, given the music's roots, but he handles the cross-pollination with angry aplomb. Disappearing Act leans as much toward the Ruts' "Babylon Is Burning" as toward Pink Flag, but with more malicious intent. The Geisha Girls' perfectly/imperfectly coiffed art-wave is fueled more by the garage punk's fear of a rock-and-roll-less planet than by a burning desire to open for the Rapture.