Ladyhawk: Shots

Label: Jagjaguwar

Consider this a sort of musical game of telephone: a mid-’00s band looking back at the early ‘90s bands that were extrapolating from mid-’70s forebears, with new accretions altering the sound while retaining its essence. Every 15 years or so, a new generation of kids weaned on their parents’ album collections comes to a realization of one of the great rock verities: a scruffy, skuzzy, scrabbling, shambolic two-guitar sound is inherently compelling and perfectly complements the dark thoughts of troubled youth. That each generation also embraces scruffy, skuzzy facial hair must not be coincidental; that each generation’s recording quality gets fuzzier could be indie signifying, or just smaller recording budgets as the moves further underground. This particular quartet has added speed to its repertoire since its debut album, so there are some uptempo changes of pace amid the many shuffling midtempo rambles. Anyone who likes Songs: Ohia/Magnolia Electric Company/Jason Molina will dig this disc. (Steve)