The Ex: Catch My Shoe

Label: Ex Records

You want a band you can hang your hopes on, a band that'll never let you down, a band whose logo is worth scrawling on your arm, jacket, notebook, skateboard? Dutch punk legends the Ex are that band, a group everyone should aspire to be like -- if not necessarily in sound then for being so artistically curious and omnivorous. More than a quarter century after forming in an Amsterdam squat, this perfect quartet has followed its collective nose through Eastern European folk and Ethiopian jazz, and every sound the Ex has picked up is synthesized beautifully on this rousing new album, their first since a mind-blowing 2006 collaboration with Ethiopian sax legend Getatchew Mekuria. It's also their first with new vocalist Arnold de Boer, who settles right into the trademark jagged rhythms and shards of guitar noise. Recorded with necessary punch by Steve Albini, Catch My Shoe -- presumably a reference to something George W. Bush could not do in Iraq --  is only the latest vital chapter in this most vital band's career.