Pop punk band a sweet treat

THE SCREAMING MEEMEES, "The Chronicles Part IV" (myspace.com/evanpagemusic): Like an estrogen-based Bowling For Soup or American Hi-Fi, this female-fronted pop punk troupe favors deadpan, self-deprecating tunes that whizz by like candy-coated gunfire.

Frontwoman Evan Page sings flatly of former flames and current obsessions, veering toward self-parody at times — "I want to carve your head into the side of a mountain," she tells the object of her affection on "Dakota"– but Page ultimately has the last laugh, mainly because she chuckles the hardest at herself.

13 MILES, "13 Miles" (www.13milesband.com): A lot of extreme metal bands view melody like they do sobriety: It’s something to be dealt with occasionally, awkwardly and reluctantly — if at all.

But rather than graft an ill-fitting cleanly sung chorus onto an otherwise bracing tune, 13 Miles are adept at interweaving subtle touches of harmony in with their free-swinging thrash.

The result is a disc that’s both immediate and technically sound, with groove-laden, anvil-heavy metal tempered with the occasional blast beat and hoarse, strangulated vocal growls. It’s only a matter of time before these dudes get snapped up by a sizable metal indie label like Century Media, Nuclear Blast or Metal Blade.

THE UNDERGROUND REBELS, "Insult to Injury" (www. theundergroundrebels.com): Their pedigree pretty much says it all: consisting of current and former members of Kiss tribute act Black Diamond, Faster Pussycat, Marky Ramone’s band and Blue Man Group, the Rebels come with highly stylized, pop-leaning hard rock polished like it was made of glass.

The band’s latest is overstuffed with Day Glo melodies, layered, multipart harmonies and a playful, Cheap Trick-inspired guitar snarl.

Yeah, it’s all been done before, and no one needs more cover versions of "Tainted Love" or "War Pigs," but before the dudes in Warrant and Trixter made glam metal a punch line, tunes like "All That You Are," "I Want More" and "Do It Again" could have made this bunch Hit Parader cover boys.

MISERICORDIAM, "Unanimity and the Cessation of Hostility" (myspace.com/misericordiam): They’ve got a drummer who sounds as if he’s playing with an extra set of limbs, an obsession with spine-numbing velocity and the good cheer of a burn victim: Misercoridiam sounds like a thousand bad days distilled into a mushroom cloud of misanthropy.

On their latest EP, they cram enough violence into six songs to fill up a half-dozen emergency rooms. The band wisely leavens its needle-in-the-red grind with doomy, riff-driven death metal segues on tunes such as "Subjugate," which is precisely what this disc does to anyone who gives it a spin.

Jason Bracelin’s "Sounding Off" column appears on Tuesdays. Contact him at 383-0476 or e-mail him at jbracelin@ reviewjournal.com.