Pretty Girls Make Graves

Pretty Girls Make Graves is a super-group of sorts featuring members of some of Seattle's latter-day indie elite: bands like Murder City Devils, Death Wish Kids and Area 51. Drawing on the their collective experience, the quintet, fronted by former A51 vocalist Andrea Zollo, dispense a herky-jerky, spastic garage punk akin to a modern day X meets At the Drive-In. While duelling guitars compete for your attention, a solid, thrashing rhythm section keeps things firmly chugging along. But it's Zollo, who only occasionally trades off vocals with her male counterparts, that links all the mayhem together. Her voice is at times rough and emotive, and at others quite lilting, recalling early PJ Harvey. But she never resorts to the old "riot grrrls who can't sing trick" of screaming at the top of her lungs (Kittie, I'm talking to you) to make a point.