Lost Sounds

Two years ago, you couldn't turn a corner without running into a garage-rock band. Any group that came close to a "garage" description jumped on the bandwagon, but while those bands fell after the fad bottomed out, Memphis' Lost Sounds remained hidden, and released three albums of what's better described as bomb-shelter rock. Now that the garage-rock clouds have cleared, the members of LS poke their heads out of the shelter with a self-titled album that casts some catchy sunshine on their post-apocalyptic new wave. Granted, the synth-driven quartet still relies on a fusion of the B-52's and Marilyn Manson that would better fit a zombie flick than a Hives album, but this time, the B-52's influence tilts the scale with a new stress on danceable singles. "I Get Nervous" is a smart, complex mesh of poppy hooks, while "And You Dance" and "Clones Don't Love" are flat-out rockers that make similar new-wavers theSTART sound like a folk band. A few tracks wear thin quickly, as do the "dark" lyrics that are neither tough nor cheeky, but lead shouters Jay Lindsey and Alicja Trout trade off in spastic fashion and make even the worst moments on Lost Sounds worth finding.