Ride the Fader
Dedicated proponents of the more-is-more school of loud rock, this New York quartet barely even glances at its underground roots while cranking out some of the catchiest stadium-rock riffs this side of AC/DC. Chavez do maintain a level of self-awareness--irony, even--that allow them to stand apart from the Bic-lighting set, but there's an undeniably immediate appeal to songs like "Tight Around the Jaws" and "Flight 96." Blame axemen Clay Tarver (ex-Bullet LaVolta) and Matt Sweeney (formerly of Skunk) when those tunes are stuck in your pleasure center like pins in a voodoo doll.--David Sprague