We All Have Hooks For Hands somewhat clumsy, but Total Babe delights
We All Have Hooks For Hands
We All Have Hooks For Hands, The Shape Of Energy
(Afternoon Records) 
Slimmed down from its formerly 10-member-strong ranks, Sioux Falls indie-rock collective We All Have Hooks For Hands is still plenty robust both in terms of numbers (now a sextet) and bursting-at-the-seams sound. On the strongest moments of its sophomore album, The Shape Of Energy, the band comes off as a sort of rural youth response to the Broken Social Scene’s shambolic splendor. When clicking on all cylinders, the group’s employment of buoyant brass, ragged-but-right harmonies and woozy country-western touches possesses a frenzied charge. Unfortunately, those moments are too few and far between, and the band often finds themselves on the wrong side of the divide between delightfully disheveled and plain old sloppy.
Grade: B-
Upcoming show: Saturday, Dec. 19, Triple Rock Social Club (with A Night In The Box, Destry, and Total Babe)
Total Babe, Heatwave
(SoTM Records)
A quartet whose skeletal acoustic folk-pop packs surprising punch, Total Babe proves simultaneously airy and sinewy on its six-song debut EP, Heatwave. Fronted by 17-year-old Clara Salyer, whose calm-and-collected chirp recalls Tracyanne Campbell of Camera Obscura, Total Babe makes the most of its bare-bones aesthetic by continually shifting the spotlight from Salyer’s bouncy, acoustic-guitar melodies, to the swooning fills of violinist Lizzie Carolan, to tastefully applied dollops of playful xylophone. While the album is occasionally a little too twee for its own good—as naming a song “Gary Coleman” would suggest—Salyer's ability to create breezy pop songs is an enviable accomplishment at any age, let alone 17. The best is surely yet to come, as the pensive instrumental that closes the album (“Country”) showcases an otherwise unexplored and equally compelling side of the group.
Grade: B+
Upcoming show: Saturday, Dec. 19, Triple Rock Social Club
