Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

Alright. This is more like it. ALIBIS AND AMMUNITION is one of those discs that you just know is gonna be good from the minute you look at the CD cover design, generously decorated with women in fetish clothing, cat fighting motifs, skulls, bullets --- all the things we love --- and four gentlemen --- known as Trashlight Vision, collectively --- who won’t be working at Disney World in this or any other lifetime. You look at the package and you hope the CD is half as good as it looks. It’s better.

ALIBIS AND AMMUNITION never disappoints. How could it? Titles like “Allergic To You,” “Screw Worm Baby,” “Faceplant Pavement,” and the immortal for a minute “My Fuck You 2 U” portend great things, and Trashlight Vision fulfills that and then some. Loud, proud, and written and performed with the thought that there is no point in diddling around at 100 mph when 150 mph will do, ALIBIS AND AMMUNITION doesn’t let up for a second, a 40-plus minute carnival ride at warp factor 8. Immediate influences, just a minute or so into “Dead Waves On The Air,” are Guns ‘N’ Roses, Rubber City Rebels, The Left End, and The Ramones, to name but a few. Does it get any better than that? No, of course not.

ALIBIS AND AMMUNITION isn’t a “three chords and a cloud of dust” project, just lots of changeups, tons of energy, and behind all the nihilistic attitude, some thoughtful composition in punk clothing. Trashlight Vision may self-destruct --- I hope not --- impaled on its own sharp barb, but this is a disc with more than its fair share of moments. Worth a number of listens.