GROOMS
Rejoicer
(Death by Audio)

By Kimberly Chun

Grooms is a slightly better name than Muggabears, the moniker of vocalist-guitarist Travis Johnson’s original teenaged bedroom recording project -- it errs on the side of blah-blankness rather than cute-grotesquerie. Regardless, **Rejoicer** makes me want to look for Johnson in the future.

Sonic Youth and its **Speed Trials** ilk are the touchstones here -- from the refined, sensuous use of carefully controlled noise blasts to Johnson’s smudgy, adolescent yowl -- while the addition of drummer Jim Sykes conjures thoughts of his former combo Parts and Labor. It’s as if the threesome were on a treasure hunt for junked beauty among the grunge era’s corroded metal salvage shop -- with breaks for twanging, seductively supple guitar torture -- and listening to this thoughtfully assembled collection of songs, I’d say they’ve found what they were searching for.