Hot Hot Heat

In the early ’00s, Hot Hot Heat felt like the ADD-addled little brother to the New York garage-rock revivalists, spazzing out to XTC instead of sneering along with the Velvets. After the awkward, gawky phase that produced the major-label entries Elevator and Happiness Ltd., Bays and company have returned to deliver on the promise of their Sub Pop debut, Make Up The Breakdown with Future Breeds, an album that skylarks through a gauntlet of stuttering drums, nervy synths and just-barely-held-together vocals. Future Breeds is a gauntlet of abrasive blasts of energy, which means it's all the more satisfying to make it out the other side.

Updated 08/24/2010