NICK ROMBES: The White Stripes, who hail from Detroit, play music that comes at you like The flaming shards of a crashing Molotov cocktail

ROBIN BECKER: Ross Beach is a modern-day troubadour recasting no-depression-brand folk country by flirting with alt-pop, post-grunge icons

MARK JACKSON: In the three recordings by John Handcox included here, you will not find a honey-smooth... Perhaps his voice will even grate on your ear a bit--it has a bite to it

NAT HARDY: The Angel Scratch Radio Project by the Pointless Orchestra offers listeners an eclectic blend of controversial voices and intricately weaved musical passages

ALFRED BURYCHKA: The Radio CD delivers one pungent punch after another, crushing the silences between songs with snazzy snippets from their own bag of ethereal buffoonery and crushing the songs themselves with silences

PARIS TIRONE: God (anyone!) help us, for Ellis is making mischief of music again