Antbrain plays their brand of rock music with a crooked smile. Audiences can't help but smile back as their ears get gently tickled by the fuzzy guitars, driving basslines and pummeling rhythms. Starting out as a sporadic recording project for guitarist Jiyoung Lee and bassist Dave Bonawits in 2008, the band discovered their true self when they added drummer Josh Hall in mid-2010. Since then they've been winning audiences over with their self described "slop-pop."

Deft songwriting and a feral energy form the core of Antbrain's music. Just underneath the wisecracks and zen-like koans burns a 21st century lyricism wavering between crippling neuroses and supreme confidence. Lee and Bonawits sing with a semi-shouted roar, often at the same time, never losing sight of their innate melodicism. The overall sound is decidedly 90's, coming across as a weird mix between the Pixies, Moldy Peaches and Pinkerton-era Weezer. Someone once said they sounded like The Presidents of the United States of America, but they did not like that comparison.

What more can be said of giddy pop music? You will either be charmed or you won't. Like it or not, you are almost guaranteed to get one of their many hooks woven into some hidden synapse deep inside your brain. And contrary to so many players of rock and roll these days, those crooked smiles reveal much about the joy in their performance.

-Shane Morgensson, Portland ME, January 2012 Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.