Nasty, Brutish and Short

Following a string of buzzworthy releases beginning in 2009, including stops on the JEFF the Brotherhood-connected Infinity Cat and Jack White's Third Man label, Pujol relights the fuse of garage revival dynamite with the Nasty, Brutish, and Short EP. Band brainchild Daniel Pujol fires through this seven-song collection, cramming every moment with swaggering melodies and gritty energy that reference the raw-edged rock & roll canon, leaving the listener humming along well after the EP's 19 minutes have passed. Opening track "Mayday," with its punky ray gun guitar, cave-stomping drums, and fuzzy hook, threatens to stay stuck in your head indefinitely, if not for the fact there's so much else to love here. "Emotion Chip (No Feeling)" is one such thing, blending off-kilter jangle with melancholy piano, while uptempo ballad "Scully" owes as much to '50s soda-shop doo wop as it does to `70s power pop. Nasty, Brutish, and Short is just that -- but while the formula is simple, the result is wildly fun, immediate, and memorable. ~ Chrysta Cherrie