Strap yourself in and blast off! Rocket style! This St. Louis quartet adopts some of its musical musings from the somewhat nearby Chicago noise-rock solar system, a la Albini and friends. Combining melodic songwriting concepts with obstreperous guitar, Pave the Rocket has that comfortable sonic familiarity that makes it accessible to fans of the genre, yet still throws its own weight about raucously, producing some dangerously unique and angular sounds. "Tyro" quickly engages mission control and places all systems on go with a mix of bass and drums that rapidly turns favorably distorted -- perhaps reminiscent of an evil step-sister of the young Jesus Lizard boy, as she slyly teases her defenseless sibling. Similarly, "Facesmash" practices a math-rock doctrine and preaches a sniveling guitar sermon of stop-start linear dynamics, as the collective House guitars snake their way through the song. The pseudo-scream-singing of vocalist Jason House may not appeal to everyone (my boss hated it, but hey, she listens to Toto), but PTR has their "sound" very well established, and their debut CD delivers exactly what it promises - passionate, potent dissonance.
Pave the Rocket Taken In Deep Elm Records (CD)
			Review by Andrew Magilow

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