Sonic Avenues

People can go on all they like about pushing art forward. Sometimes all you want is a fun, familiar sound to soundtrack your day. Take Sonic Avenues, for example; it's not like the Montreal four-piece are the first group to mix the Buzzcocks in with a dash of the Jam, but they're certainly one of the best. Their self-titled debut sounds as much like a compilation of early UK punk singles as it does the work of one group. "I Want You to Know," with its excellent keyboard accompaniment, and the fantastic "Bleed Me Dry" are instant standouts. But the group have worked hard to give each song its own personality within the somewhat limiting confines of the band's sound. Yes, the lo-fi production, buzz-saw guitars and drums that sound like cardboard boxes hearken back to the Exploding Hearts, another band to borrow heavily from the Shelley/Weller songbooks. But fun, not originality, is the name of the game here, and Sonic Avenues have it in spades.