Alien Crime Syndicate
(Seattle; theacs.com)
“Please just lift up your hands / If you like Ozzy or the Mötley Crüe.” So goes the chorus of “Ozzy,” the opening salvo on the Alien Crime Syndicate’s third album, XL from Coast to Coast, which has just been picked up by V2. These guys are closer to Cheap Trick (in overdrive), complete with big hooks, Beatlesque harmonies, and a bunch of chants and cheers, sparked by vocalist/ guitarist Joe Reineke and bassist Jeff Rouse. At a tiny outdoor “venue” called the Hickory Street Bar & Grill, the ACS slayed the assembled mini-throng with trashy flair. The band will be playing coast-to-coast in 2002, so if you like crunchy pop/rock, lay down your cash at your local club.

The Dears
(Montreal; thedears.org)
Forget about getting noticed — if you play SXSW but can barely fit on what is charitably called “the stage,” what do you do? If you’re the Dears, you put keyboardist Natalia Yanchak on the floor, cram four other members toward the back wall, give singer/guitarist Murray Lightburn space to exhort in between, and bear down for a make-or-break performance. Happily, the Dears made good. Lightburn has been called “the black Morrissey,” but I hear the black Damon Albarn (or a rockier Roland Gift) — and, true enough, his music can be Blurry. He’s also capable of some great neo-soul, while the band can build one long riff into a danceable trance. To hear what our neighbors up north have been crowing about, look for the reissued EP Orchestral Pop Noir Romantique (Universal Canada).

The Pee Wee Fist
(Boston; thepeeweefist.com)
Yes, friends, the two musicians you see here are in the same band. That’s Peter Fitzpatrick on banjo, and that’s Jon Bernhardt on theremin. So it stands to reason that Fitzpatrick — who also plays some fine electric lead guitar (and further plays in a whole ’nother band, Clem Snide) — is able to lead all six members of the Pee Wee Fist in everything from trad themes and lounge dreams to snaky rockers. On their current album, Flying (Kimchee), in songs as short as three minutes and as long as ten, you can also hear uncommon chord choices and odd filigrees — in fact, all the kinds of twists and turns that can still keep indie rock interesting and literate and vital after all these years.