(AGSFB Music)

www.agsfb.com

All Girl Summer Fun Band's name is just about as accurate as you can get, as far as summing up a band's sound and motivation. But this is not meant as a disparaging remark. The band consists of three girls making summery, sugary power-pop, and they seem to be having a damn good time doing it - nothing wrong with that, right?

The Thermals' bass player, Kathy Foster, is perhaps the best-known member of the group, and their power chord crunching melodies, simple song structures, and whimsical lyrics at times recall the sharper-honed oeuvre of her other band. But AGSFB is more Shangri-La's than Minor Threat, as the three ladies trade off vocal harmonies over songs dealing with crushes, rocking out in basements, and breaking up. The band does slow down and speed up the tempo at times, occasionally churning out a ballad ("Rewind"), and ending the record with a couple of harder-tinged punk rockers. But the point of this new album seems to be about blasting out loud, straightforward, simple (but not stupid) two-minute nuggets of energetic, old-school rock. And it's a point well taken.

Standout Tracks: "Plastic Toy Dream," "Oh No" JONAH FLICKER