Choice Cuts: September 2004

Highlight Tracks: "Heaven's A Lie" and "Humane"

For More Info: Check out http://www.lacunacoil.it

Artist: THE LEGENDS

Album: Up Against The Legends

The Scoop: Back in my schoolboy days, I had a teacher-I forget which one-who would reward good students with a "warm fuzzy" (a cheap toy, for the record). "Warm fuzzy" also goes a long way toward describing The Legends, whose debut album crackles with pretty harmonies, fuzzy vocals, a boisterous pop energy and a fond eye toward yesteryear. The results definitely put a bounce in your step. A pair of slower tempo songs ("Your song," "When the day is done," which is also featured on the Wicker Park soundtrack) are introspective and atmospheric, showing songwriting maturity well beyond their years (they formed last year). Even with a running time of around a half hour, there are moments on Up Against The Legends that feel repetitive, some of the jangles, scratchy vocals and tambourine slaps start blending into one another. Furthermore, if retro isn't your bag and you never got turned on by Jesus and Mary Chain or Phil Spector, you'll want to turn elsewhere. But if it is, The Legends are already showing signs, at a very young age, of belonging near the top tier.

Highlight Tracks: "Your song" and "The kids just want to have fun"

For More Info: Hop over to http://www.lakeshore-records.com/thelege...

Artist: MONO

Album: Walking cloud and deep red sky, Flag fluttered and the sun shined

The Scoop: Mono has said that they aim to make music that hits their listeners like a Lars Von Trier film (Breaking The Waves in particular). Walking cloud is teeming with drama and epic emotional crests, and despite its lack of lyrics it provides an ample storyline, but - at least to this listener's ears - it is much more hopeful than its cinematic role model. So we have the memory of bombs in Hiroshima ("A Thousand Paper Cranes"), but the tone of song, while somber, is more rooted in a legend about how folding 1,000 paper cranes will lead to wish fulfillment. The comparisons to Mogwai are apt, but Mono has also shared bills with math-metal screamers The Dillinger Escape Plan. Though there are still glorious explosions of noise on Walking Cloud, forbiddingly slow builds of tension and sound that eventually crash and bubble over (best illustrated on the opening track "16.12"), the band usually returns to a place

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