Critic's Choice

For those about to rock, look no further than to the Murder City Devils, with American Steel and the Down-N-Outs Friday, March 10, at the 15th St. Tavern. Now that Mötley Cre, Metallica and the other dope, guns and fucking bands of the '80s seem about as threatening as Scott Baio circa the Charles in Charge era, it's hard to find a band that just rawks, but Seattle's Murder City Devils manage to come through on their latest Sub Pop release. Empty Bottles, Broken Hearts offers just what the title leads you to imagine: songs of drunken debauchery, lonely nights on the road and the sorrows of day jobs and DUIs. Though the lyrics are sound, the real aural pleasures are offered by the twelve-gauge sawed-off shotgun rock that makes you want to sit atop your bar stool all night, before you head for the sack with the first willing stranger. The solid backbeat rhythms, howling of vocalist Spencer Moody and a beefy farfisa organ will make even the meek give in to their inner heavy-metal demons. -- Mike Engstrom