IIssue No. 62.

By Neal Agneta

If a band that has one foot in '80s Minneapolis and the other in Nova Scotia, Canada circa 1993 sounds appealing to you, then by golly, L.A.'s Ready the Jet fit the bill, dead-on. While the trio's mid-fi tact harkens back to indie-rock glory days of yore, New [New Record Highs] isn't a wholesale throwback. If anything, RTJ will make you a little wistful for the time when Husker Du and Dino Jr. ruled college airwaves. In fact, I almost had to do a double take to assure myself that Bob Mould himself wasn't peeling off the slashing power chords on the all-too-brief "Powerline City." Leave it to front man Matt Brooks to make certain that the precise amount of crunch, feedback, and sweet melodicism courses through the vein of every inspired track that lends itself to this excellent 38 minutes.