Vertical Struts

Finally! Raymond Biesinger and Trevor Anderson show off a feline-cool, canine-fierce array of focused talent, taking their frenetic live show into the studio, ripping apart its wet walls. The big difference, of course, is that you can’t see Ray bouncing off the floors or Trev holding his handsome poise under all that drummer sweat, but to make up for that Biesinger’s guitar picking is practically visual, and you can almost hear Anderson’s shoulders working. Seriously, this is some of the best modern guitar-playing in town, especially on the slowed-down "Sh!,” the Devo-crazy "Diamond Coats and Other Things” and the opening track, "Stab, Stab, Stab.” The band, one of the Holy Trio of Two-Pieces in Edmonton (with Whitey Houston, Twin Fangs), oscillate somewhere between mid-’60s garage beat bands like 006 and pre-polished Nirvana, when Kurt Cobain used to record songs into his ghetto blaster — especially when the gay-positive lads float quietly above the lake surface on the shell-shocked "Waterloo.” The mix and range is great, the overarching tone of the album is well-selected by track order. But when it comes down to it, "Girlfriend Boyfriend” is just so arousing a song I’m not allowed to write about it any more without a jizz towel handy.