Bottom Line - Eloquence

Barbie: Epic new punk from the heartland. Catchy tunes, nice harmonies, excellent rhythm section.
Skipper: The 90's equivalent of hair metal. Yet, it's 2005. Power-pop boy band vocals.
Teresa: Sugary fluff disguised as meaty entrée. Sonic overload for the over stimulated Ritalin crowd.

The Burdens - Uh Oh

Barbie: Jangly guitar country college rock from Tucson. Some blues infused Warren Zevon moments.
Skipper: Simple and likeable dark folk. A little repetitive, but nice.
Teresa: Country folk with weird guitar effects. A little strange.

Tara Leigh Cobble - Things You Can't Stop With Your Hands

Barbie: Nashville style Ameri-pop with great lyrics and soul. Musically diverse and interesting. Amazing vocalist.
Skipper: Big, full sound. Better than Sheryl Crow, not as good as Natalie Merchant. Beautiful.
Teresa: Chick rock, but better than most. Nice voice and decent songs.
Midge: bullets, armor-plated bulldozer, an ill wind, viral infection, The Rock, soup splatter, tsunamis, machetes, Mack trucks.

Free Sol - 11:11

Barbie: Hard rock ska hip-hop. Groovy tunes and great background vocals. Musical diversity produced very well.
Skipper: Fantastic arrangements, nice rhymes and good flow. Some heavy Onyx moments. Damn good.
Teresa: Everything from P.M. Dawn trip-hop to sambas and Manhattan Transfer jazz to straight up rap-rock.
Midge: Candy keeps saying she wants to get with me. I will have to agree.

God Lives Underwater - Up Off The Floor

Barbie: Techno-metal from former raver gods. Gritty sounds and cool grooves, but almost too aggro.
Skipper: If Filter got into White Zombie. Great sleazy rhythms, but no screaming! Very cool.
Teresa: KMFDM feel with the guitars over standard industrial beats.
Midge: Still got the stuff that made people love "No More Love".

Greyscale - Discord For The Dead Kid

Barbie: Some excellent, edgey rock'n'roll. Great lyrics and musicianship… then the screaming begins.
Skipper: Schizophrenic metal and other - the rapping is real good, the Slayer shit can go.
Teresa: Some melodic heavy rock, some screaming, a little reggae Sublime feel.
Midge: Part AC/DC, part Gordon Lightfoot, part Tiny Tim.

Jennifer Gentle - Valende

Barbie: Syd Barrett Pink Floyd-style psychedelia mixed with Ween-esque madness. Surreal landscapes of sounds. Awesome!
Skipper: Like Oliver, Donovan and Herman's Hermits rolled into one. Weird lisp, dad.
Teresa: Crazy 60's inspired goof rock with kazoos and balloons. Ya dogg.
Midge: Who's playing the balloon? Androgynous art-garage Nico era Velvet Underground.

Mark McKay - Shimmer

Barbie: East coast stories like Springsteen when he was good. Almost Americana, but rocks harder.
Skipper: Tom Petty theft. Decent whiny roots rock, bar blues.
Teresa: A country version of John Mayer and the others like him.
Midge: Too bad you already wasted Warren Zevon… Shit heel.

Queen Esther - Talkin' Fishbowl Blues

Barbie: Rockin' blues with tons of soul, excellent guitar work, just off vocals, great rhythm section.
Skipper: Hell Yeah! That King Xerxes is one lucky feller. Real nice electric blues (or country).
Teresa: Bluesy, country rock in the Bonnie Raitt style… sort of.
Midge: I like it a lots. Stand By Your Man, indeed.

r-h - Blackasia Volume 1

Barbie: Tranced out electronic Asian music. Think Enigma moved farther south and east.
Skipper: Techno-raga. Background music for people who can't be distracted by real music.
Teresa: Tibetan house music made for accompanying sexual exploits. Kama Sutra trance tunes.
Midge: Asian-lounge, beep beep music. Could be played at the Buddha Bar, yo.

Roper - Brace Yourself For The Mediocre

Barbie: Former Five Iron Frenzy frontman makes killer pop-punk, working in cool synthesizers and mucho emotion.
Skipper: Funny pop-punk presented as serious. Better than Sum Blink, but it's no Lonely Now.
Teresa: Great pop punk. Nice job on the Shania Twain Cover.
Midge: Greatest ROBOT album artwork of all time. Period! Greatest Shania Twain cover ever. Period!

Peter Salett - After A While

Barbie: Songs reminiscent of 60's Paul Simon - Downbeat, full of emotion and brilliant storytelling.
Skipper: Borrows from Dylan, Cohen, and Lou Reed. Pretty and gentle and relaxing.
Teresa: Mellow, folky pleasant voice, with some blues guitar thrown in.
Midge: An even mellower Spain. Sleepy stories and excellent production - cool guitars. Better than Mark Kozelek.

Seconds Before - Further Destinations

Barbie: Fantastically produced new style pop-rock. Hints of Van Halen, Yellowcard, Finger Eleven, Foo Fighters, Fixx.
Skipper: Class: Whine music. Genre: WB rock. Sub-genre: OC boy-pop.
Teresa: Hoobastank, Incubus, Yellowcard, Rooney type stuff.
Midge: Parental warning: will make your daughter read Teen Beat.

Sunshine - Moonshower And Razorblades

Barbie: Brilliant heavy guitar-synth rock - taking Euro-garage to new levels. Captivating music, excellent production.
Skipper: Goth-punk, like a Bauhaus video game. Something missing, like a soul.
Teresa: Aggressive rock music blending elements from everywhere. Devo, Strokes, Kasabian - high energy, cool sounds.
Midge: They rocked, they rolled, they peed their pants… That's what I heard.

Molly Thomas - Shoot The Sky

Barbie: Down-tempo new folk. Excellent lyrical poetry, nice instrumentation. Excellent music for introspection.
Skipper: A down-to-earth Sarah McLachlan or a female Gordon Lightfoot. Acceptably off-key.
Teresa: Standard Lilith Fair stuff. Not a great voice, a little off-key.
Midge: You can't rhyme cents & sense! Didn't that girl marry Phil Donahue?

Toothpick - Time Travellin' Couch

Barbie: Michael Frante style rap over deep soul jams. Excellent musicality, great lyric makes good grooves.
Skipper: The hip-hop vulture spinning pop culture. G. Love mellow folk. That suit's a yellow joke.
Teresa: Folky, earthy rap in the Everlast vein.
Midge: Smashmouth unplugged with a rapper out front.

Umphries McGee - Anchor Drops

Barbie: Jazzy math-rock for the jam band set. Clever instrumentation, better songs than other jam acts.
Skipper: If patients in the doctor's office sang along to the crap-jazz. Spin Doctors.
Teresa: Don't like the rhythm? Wait a measure. Don't like melody? Welcome home. Jake sings best.
Midge: Jazz lovin' jam banding Steely Dan lovin' wannabes.

Verbal - The Name We Sell Now

Barbie: 3-piece instrumental combo running the gamit from Texas blues to jazz to math rock.
Skipper: More smart-ass jazz anal emissions. Scatological metallic explorations of Uranus.
Teresa: Funky and jazzy, sometimes rock, instrumental hoo-haa.
Midge: What do you call math rock that doesn't rock? Jazz?

Windmill - Every Last Windmill Shall Fall

Barbie: Enthralling mid-tempo indie rock filled with clever lyrics, cool lo-fi production, and great musicality.
Skipper: Indie Dinosaur Jr. stuff. Sounds Canadian, great lyrics.
Teresa: New band steps into the void left by Josh Rouse. Slow lo-fi Americana.
Midge: A little Shins, a little British Sea Power, and somebody else I'm missing.