Unclean

Austin's Pitbull Daycare sort of picks up where Orgy left off, dealing in a similar punk-metal-electronica sound, except that where Orgy went for more of a shiny, Eurotrash ambience, Pitbull Daycare has more of a grungy, white-trash thing going on — sort of a cross between Lords of Acid and, say, Static-X. Their sophomore album (and first for the Cleopatra label) is an unwittingly cute explosion of raw guitars, rawer vocals, and genuine pop hooks. What makes these songs unintentionally charming is their combination of rough-edged aggro surfaces and teenybopper lyrical platitudes: the band actually covers Queen's "Sheer Heart Attack," on which singer Bishop gets to rhyme the phrase "You're just seventeen" with "You know what I mean," and on "Suffocation" he rhymes "Down on my knees" with "Please." It's just so cute! Then there's the cover version of R.E.M.'s "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)," on which Bishop replaces the Lenny Bruce name-check with a shout-out to the late Joey Ramone. It's very sweet, really, which probably wasn't what he was going for, but that just makes it sweeter somehow. The CD is accompanied by a DVD that features a band documentary, photo gallery, and live concert footage. Recommended.