Mike Krol

★★★ Power Chords MERGE. CD/DL/LP

Milwaukee Weezer fan’s triumph over rock-life doubt.

Krol’s fourth album cover depicts its sole protagonist sat on his unmade bed, with bloodied nose and shiner, clutching an electric guitar. Such, largely, is the narrative in the music within: a Midwestern hick swept up by punk’s energy, moving to Los Angeles to chase it, but chewed up in the process, needing a record to confront, and beat, his demons. Power Chords’ exorcism never feels like a drag, though the pain that fuels it is real. At its nastiest, Little Drama’s dense overdriven guitars and nasal snarl recall Pixies’ Planet Of Sound, while Blue And Pink evokes The Strokes. Mostly, it feels like a marriage of Weezer and Superchunk , amid allpervasive fuzz-pedal abuse.