. By its very name it's a kick in the pants, an emphatic wallop that metes out harmony between the greasers and punks by the thrum of standup bass. made a real impression with , their debut, and 2005's also delivers soundly. The band never gets carried away with establishing a rabid, rapid pace, or the genre's obsession with grabby ghouls and pools of blood. That stuff's in there, but it's cut with 's endearing " gone a little bad" lead vocals and dynamic songwriting that finds the most effective way to combine thump with swagger, instead of the most obvious one. And aren't two-dimensional. While the cleverly self-referential stance of and forever lurks like a comforting shadow in the backgrounds of , sounds like nothing less than an outtake from 's is pretty straight-on . Likewise, has a slight kick driving its punctuating guitar twangs. Those guitars are strong throughout, if just a little conventional -- ( 's former bassist) unleash blasts of raucous or atmospheric creeping pluck as appropriate, but the whole band seems to realize it's ' frontwoman who's the star of this show. is just incredible. She's a precocious babydoll, a vengeful lover (in the '50s-style murder she's ruthless), a bawdy bandleader. But most of all she's a fantastic bassist, the thumping strings of her upright leading her band along like bold page numbers in the corner of a nickel pulp novel. ~ Johnny Loftus