The Gore Gore Girls

No matter how slickly professional rock's mainstream gets, there will always be someone out there stripping the machine to its crudest core. The Sonics and Monks ignited the torch in the '60s; the New York Dolls and Stooges carried it in the early '70s; they then passed it to the Ramones and Wire, and so on. Melody, verse, chorus, break, snarl — not necessarily in that order. Detroit's Gore Gore Girls continue the tradition. They've been around since 1996 and show no signs of concession to anything a decade later. Yet they don't champion any of that lo-fi, underground-or-nothin' BS. Their latest album, Get the Gore, features crisp, brisk workouts that never skimp on pile-driving garage-band stomp. Coming on like a Pabst-splattered cross between the Shangri-Las and PJ Harvey, the Gore Gore Girls are dogma-free, dirty-sweet punk rockers . . . who just happen to look good in miniskirts.