Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

My business takes me to Nashville every couple of weeks for three days. I don't fly, so it's a six hour drive, which means that I keep lots and lots of CDs in the car. I've got to have new music, good, bad or indifferent, when I'm traveling. Sometimes I hear something that winds up on the median of I-65; other times I hear something that blows the synapses out. During my last trip, grabbing madly for a stray CD I hadn't played yet, I slipped GET ON by The Dirtmitts into the player. I kept it in there all the way to Demonbraun.

I've been able to discover precious little about this band, other than that they are from Canada, possibly Hamilton, Ontario. GET ON is self-released, which is a puzzle, considering that these guys seem as ready to go as anything I've heard recently. You can hear all sorts of influences, all good, swirling around on GET ON. There's the Velvet Underground template, superimposed over The Breeders, the Blake Babies, and early Liz Phair, without the artsy excesses that all of those artists occasionally and unfortunately stray into, all of it glazed with those wonderful, hamhocked power chords that Keith Richard etched irrevocably into rock 'n' roll history on BEGGAR'S BANQUET. The Dirtmitts have got the basic, rock 'n' roll quartet thing down just right, two guitars, bass, occasional keyboards, and drums, the way God intended. Natasha Thirsk, guitarist and lead singer on all but two of the tracks, has a little-girl-and-whisky voice that tells you that there might be a razor blade or two floating around inside this baby doll so that even on the medium tempo tracks things stay interesting. Lead guitarist Dallas Kruszelnicki, who also handles lead vocals on "The Tag Is It," is a great, but not technically perfect, stringman, and as a result keeps things interesting; even his very occasional, though slight, missteps are wonderful. Considering that this is basically uncomplicated, straight ahead rock, it is surprising and great to hear subtly different things coming at you even on repeated listenings.

GET ON, and The Dirtmitts, are keepers. This is rock 'n' roll with the sweat left in. As good as The Strokes and The Hives are, I can still hear GET ON playing in my sleep. This bad boy sounds good all the way through, every time. Play it for your friends and tell 'em who they are.