The Muffs : Releases >>

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Really Really Happy >>

Having recorded for Sub Pop, Warner Bros., and Reprise, L.A.'s Muffs have returned to their indie roots with their Oglio/Five Foot Two Records debut. Kim Shattuck's vocal style has a unique blend of innocence and anger injected with a punk bite. Seventeen hook-happy power pop tunes that could be their best effort so far.

Blonder and Blonder >>

If there was justice in the music world, the first album by the Los Angeles quartet the Muffs would have been just as successful as the debut by their labelmates, Green Day. Of course, there isn't and it wasn't. Co-founder Melanie Vammen left the band, Kim Shattuck regrouped as a trio, and the Muffs are back with Blonder and Blonder. The album has its punk-pop charms- including rollicking tunes such as "Agony" and "Oh Nina"-but most of the songs simply aren't as memorable as those in the first batch. -- Jim DeRogatis

The Muffs >>

Long before Hole, Come, L7, or Babes in Toyland, L.A. songwriter Paula Pierce and her backing band, the Pandoras, were assaulting listeners with a grungy mix of female rage, growling guitars, and screaming vocals. Now, two veteran Pandoras--Kim Shattuck and Melanie Vammen--have formed a group of their own called the Muffs and released an invigorating self-titled album. Like the Pandoras, the Muffs draw inspiration from early '60s garage bands, but their album isn't mired in the low-tech/no-tech production values that made the former group's records nearly unlistenable. Producers Rob Cavallo and David Katznelson give The Muffs a larger-than-life sound that emphasizes the Ramones-like drumming and relentless rhythm guitars, and Shattuck and Vammen score big with the simple hooks and sassy attitude of songs such as "Lucky Guy," "Saying Goodbye," and "Big Mouth." You'd have to reach all the way back to Blondie's Plastic Letters to find punkish power pop this endearing. --Jim DeRogatis

Happy Birthday to Me >>

Hamburger >>

Von Wegen >>

Steady Fremdkörper >>

Alert Today, Alive Tomorrow >>

Kim Shattuck has a magic touch when it comes to hook-happy power pop. She writes the kind of catchy tunes that might seem effortless to compose but whose grace and precision come from more than just a nifty chord progression. The former Pandora has the knack and the guitar chops to make these rollicking three-minute pop songs memorable--you practically need the jaws-of-life to get them out of your head. The raucous tunes about envy, jealousy, true love, and well-deserved enmity are delivered with the melodic surge of Nirvana combined with the chutzpah of the Shangri-Las. The deft rhythms of bassist Ronnie Barnett and drummer Roy McDonald give Shattuck a straightforward anchor for her crispy chords and cat-scratch vocals. Fans of the dirty sound of Happy Birthday to Me and Blonder and Blonder might worry that Alert's ultraclean production signals that the Muffs are going for a more high-class sound, but don't worry--they're not straying too far from their roots. They're just moving up to three-car-garage rock. --Lois Maffeo