Verbal
The Name We Sell Now (2005, Trust Me Corporation)

Verbal are a 3-piece rock unit from DC that play a polished, but slinky brand of math-rock not unlike Don Caballero, Battles (sans electronic help) and Shipping News. I couldn't find much info on the band online but I can tell you these guys can make their instruments wiggle and dance, giving this effort a much fuller sound than one would expect. The band also dons a collective muzzle, adding a dash of irony to their moniker.

The Name We Sell Now opens up with two straight-forward rawk nuggets and then 'Round As Can Be' picks up some steam with its rumblin' bass lines and cracklin' guitar pasta. 'Come Clean' features an interesting breakdown with half-shouted vocals and handclaps (huh?). Yeah, I said handclaps. This kind of rips a page out of the Panoply Academy playbook, playful but frenetic. The album closes with a majestic tune that starts off relatively quiet, bridges with a few loopy samples, then ends with a crescendo of all parts coming together in swells of 6-string noise.

The Name We Sell Now is relaxed and does not require refined taste or patience from the listeners. The individual songs waste no time getting to the point, sometimes over before you realize they even began. They flow smoothly from one to the next and together make up one fine listening experience. If you are looking for complex art-rock, there's not too much for you to chew on. But if you enjoy melodic math-rock with your morning biscuit, Verbal it is.

-Beat 5/17/05