If you like fun, sloppy, sometimes kinda poignant-sounding power pop, look no further than San Francisco’s The Boneless Children Foundation. The group is a traditional three-piece rock set up–drums, guitar, bass–and sounds like something you probably really dug 14 years ago when you heard it on college radio (if you’re as old as I am, that is).

The group is led by David Sophia Siegel, who originally hails from St. Louis, MO, but moved to San Francisco in order to become a rock musician and certainly has a flair for the dramatic. In addition to his work with BCF, he also enjoys composing music for film and theater.

There’s nothing really groundbreaking about this stuff, but it sure can get stuck in your head. The best part is, the band doesn’t seem to take themselves too seriously, and Siegel displays a sharp sense of humor in his lyrics as well as in the way he promotes the band. The BCF Web site features a biweekly photographic Web comic, the latest of which is a strip that attempts to explain the meaning behind the band’s name.

I remember a few years back, Kittie came out and most people thought it was kind of novel that there was a group of young girls playing pretty heavy music. They’re also Canadian, which is totally precious. I’m not hating on Kittie (I’m not a fan, but whatever, there are far shittier bands that wave the metal banner), or Canada, and it’d be nice to go to metal shows and not have them be like comic book stores, sci-fi conventions and other nerdy sausage fests. Unfortunately for Kittie, most people have a hard time getting past the whole “girls playing metal” thing. But that’s probably because they’re not as brutal as Grey from Seattle, WA.

American metal heads can finally boast about having as stong an extreme metal scene as they do in parts of Europe thanks to Pacific Northwest bands such as Book of Black Earth. Grey is another band that should be added to that list. A power trio in every sense of the world, Grey consists of Suzanne (vocals/guitar), AJ (bass) and Becca (drums), who are also known as Gypsy Witch, Luna Loca and Bitch Hammer respectively, which is pretty damn metal. All their most recent press photos also take place in the forest, which is also very metal.

The most metal thing about them, though, is their sound which is a heavy, sludgy witch’s brew of earth-loosening doom. Three songs are posted on their MySpace page (my favorite of which is the despairingly beautiful and savagely heavy epic “Fields of Grey”), and that’s all I’ve been able to hear from them, but their first release, Mother Maiden Crone, will apparently be out in the spring of this year on Kreation Records–hopefully in time for Beltane.

When you’re a band that plays small bars and clubs, being a sextet must provide interesting challenges. The most obvious, as the picture above illustrates, is where the fuck do you put everyone?

Ergonomic difficulties aside, Madison, WI’s A Catapult Western sound doesn’t suffer from such hindrances. The six members of the group employ mandolins, violas, guitars, bass, drums, synthesizers and whatever else they can get their hands on to create beautifully spare arrangements, with each part in its proper place. This stuff isn’t for the feint of heart. ACW’s music is a slow, somewhat morose hodgepodge of sounds that borrow from post-punk, country and folk. But it’s definitely worth checking out, especially if you’re kinda hungover from the night before and wondering if you’re making a mess of your life (uh…or so I’d imagine). The Onion had this to say about the group:

“Considering the novel draw of spaghetti-western scores, alt-country, and free form indie rock, musicians were bound to start combining all three. Not all will prove as graceful as recently formed Madison band A Catapult Western… ACW diffuses its vocal layers, viola, guitar, piano, and assorted other keyboard sounds through a slowcore haze. Even when it pushes into more straight-up, rocking country sounds, skewed guitars, and synths fend off genre cliches”

A Catapult Western’s debut full-length CD was released in October 2007. You can sample the songs and purchase it, if you’re so inclined, at CD Baby.

Unless you live in Sacramento or elsewhere in Northern California, you probably haven’t heard of Agent Ribbons. Even if you do live here, you may not have heard of them (I do, and I just found out about them yesterday). Luckily, The Elohim gave us humans the knowledge to create the Internets, a magical place that allows you to, among other things, check out bands from all over the world without having to leave the sweet succor of your computer monitor’s cool blue glow.

The all-girl duo consists of Natalie Gordon (vocals/guitar) and Lauren Hess (drums/accordion). The group surely appeal to fans of the Ditty Bops, but Agent Ribbons sound is much more gutsy. Gordon’s voice has a syrupy, bluesy resonance that calls to mind Erika Wennerstrom of The Heartless Bastards, though not as forceful, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

The songs are so elegantly simple and familiar, they feel like old friends. I found myself humming along after only a couple of listens, though people are starting to wonder why I’m imploring them to “go on and call me Margaret.” …The name does have a nice ring to it.

The Don’ts are from San Francisco. That’s probably the best way to describe them. Their lineup consists of Jonny Don’t (vocals), Joey Don’t (guitars), JJ Don’t (bass), and Kenny Don’t (drums), but from the picture, I have a hard time believing the Don’ts are actual blood relatives. Brothers in rock? I can buy that.

They’re certainly deft at genre-hopping. The first song I heard was that kind of spastic dance rock (”BlahBlahBlah”), and I had them pegged as one of those tight-shirted hipster rock bands that scene girls like to get sweaty-dance-y to (which is fine by me). But subsequent listening selections like “AKA Sob” have a space-y psyche rock feel. I guess they Don’t fit into any category. Ha. I’m sure they’ve never heard that one before.

Anyway. One of their most striking features is that one of the dudes wore a mask in all the press shots. And since I was a member of the Lone Ranger fan club when I was just wee, I figured I’d hook a fellow ranger up. Hi-ho, Silver. Away!