Grither

All Smiles (MCA)
by Nik Rainey

Guitars. Lots of ’em. Buzzing, whirring, thudding, clanging and coughing over every bit of this disc, giving a little needed juice and texture to this party-line scrunge-rock with a conscience. (The buried Shellac-like rhythms on “Insomnia” are a nice touch too.) Maybe it’s ’cause this runs only 19 minutes, but it kept my attention throughout. (However, the next band whose sleeve says “play loud” gets garroted with their own G-strings.)