Dear people reading this:
I’m fucking stumped. Inouk is easily the strangest, most inexplicable band I’ve ever listened to. They’re weird, but not because their “music” is questionable as music. They’re weird because just when you think you can compare them to one band, they go and change gears, sounding like something completely different. Kinda how the sadly-ceased Rancid Yak Butter Tea Party or the infamous Mr. Bungle would do, only less chaotic, and more melodic.

Goddamnit! I really wanted to hate this. I like taking out my own personal frustrations and insecurities on innocent, unsuspecting bands who send me their shitty CDs. But this wasn’t nearly as bad as I was hoping.
Jersey are a couple of legitimate, working class Canucks who make music that sounds like a healthy mixture of every punk band I’ve listened to and liked in the last ten years. The speed, the brothers-at-arms background vocals, the decent musicianship. More in the vein of Rancid and a horn-less Less Than Jake than Swingin' Utters and Social Distortion.

So what if The Cooper Temple Clause’s excessively named second full-length album, Kick Up The Fire, And Let The Flames Break Loose (RCA Records), was released back in August 2003? I was in the middle of uprooting my entire life and traveling across three states to fuck around with tastes like chicken at the time, so I was too busy to review it. And besides, Insane Wayne Chinsang just gave me a copy of it last week. He was all, "Here." And then Vinnie Baggadonuts was all, "Aren’t they really hard?" And Wayne shook his head, replying, "They sound like Radiohead."

Part One: For people who became fans of Outkast because of Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, but typically aren’t into hip-hop:

One of my all-time, top five favorite shows is Angel on the Dubba-Dubba-WB. That’s right! Angel ain’t about no winged sissies living in the clouds. It’s the story of a vampire, cursed with a soul, and shittily named "Angel". Turns out vampires don’t normally have souls-- much like the tastes like chicken staff-- but Angel was stuck with one after pissing off the wrong people. He was a really mean, evil, twisted bastard back in the day. Now he has to deal with the guilt of knowing about all the fucked-up shit he did.

And continuing with this month’s apparent “expect the unexpected” theme, allow me to introduce you to Aleda. They’re... well... I suppose you could call them a metal or hard rock band. They’re definitely heavy. Which is funny, considering I found out about them through a Grammy winning hip-hop ensemble's website.