TIGER MOUNTAIN -- GET ALONG LIKE A HOUSE ON FIRE

Most purveyors of the Paul Westerberg style of punkish Pop slide quickly into well-deserved obscurity. Even Replacements contemporaries Soul Asylum couldn't survive their brief dalliance with chart success. NYC's Tiger Mountain come to the table with more than enough to set them apart from the pathetic pack of copycat 'Mats. Tiger Mountain stands head and shoulders above most bands of their ilk by employing a number of the aforementioned harmonic tools. In addition to their innate mastery of dynamics and subtle rhythmic turns, they toss in a few Cheap Trick riffs, and the soup's ready. Also crucial to the stew is strong songwriting ability. Tiger Mountain boasts a pair of expert craftsmen in guitarists Tyler Lenane and Mike Jackson, who unleash some feverish dual guitar parts throughout their band's second release, Get Along Like A House On Fire. The two of them peel off some hot, angular harmonies that embellish their already infectious melodies. The last song on the record, "Cut Your Darlings," is quite adventurous and lengthy for a Pop tune (6:33). More so than any other song on Get Along, it's this one that best sums up Tiger Mountain -- endearing and stubbornly playful like a big wet dog, poolside on a hot summer day. Flailing, slashing, unpredictable. Fun. The band makes only a couple of missteps here, and that's when they trade their electric guitars for acoustic. Their lighter fare just doesn't fly. A mean, sleek '65 Mustang at full throttle when they rock out, Tiger Mountain is a lemon with a flat when they attempt acoustic stuff. Sticking with the fast and furious should serve them well, and it's readily apparent from the loose and live feel of this disc that Tiger Mountain should be something extraordinarily sweaty and fun in performance. I hope they'll roll through town soon. (Ric Hickey) Grade: B-

MARBLES -- EXPO

· MARBLES -- EXPO (SPINART)

Robert Schneider, the Apples in Stereo's manic Pop guru, routinely creates material for his own amusement that falls outside of the Apples' Indie Pop domain. While writing music for TV commercials in 2003, Schneider worked up sonic sketches that he then fleshed out at home in his spare time. Realizing that these synth-drenched, '80s-inspired Pop songs would never fly in the Apples' universe, he resurrected Marbles, the solo persona he invented just prior to forming the Apples in 1992. Marbles' debut, Expo, lives up to Schneider's admitted goal of trying to cross Gary Numan with ELO, especially on the 10-track, 25-minute disc's opener, "Circuit" and the lilting "When You Open," jammed with Vocoder back-ups and mechanical percussion and synthesizer buzz. But Schneider can hardly suppress the rush of his Apples tree, and that potent component of his muse bubbles up through the '80s influence on the Cars-like "Out of Zone" and "Cruel Sound," while the title track sounds like intermission music at an '80s drive-in theater. The only problem with Schneider's Marbles is there's too few of them. A brief and sugary delight. (Brian Baker) Grade: B+

ZZZZ -- PALM READER

· ZZZZ -- PALM READER (POLYVINYL)

We've all been there before. When the curiosity at other types of music creeps into inescapable awareness, either from wanting to challenge your ear or maybe from just being bored. Whatever the reason, genre-jumping is inevitably scary. I can see you out there. All you Dave Matthews fans intrigued by the combination of instruments that create a Southern Jazz flare in their work, yet fearful of taking things a step farther and chancing the purchase of a 100 percent Jazz CD. Chicago's ZZZZ sees you, too, and Palm Reader was built understanding this fear, thus creating a bridge between fun Pop Rock and Cajun-style Jazz. While occasionally ripping off The B-52's, the male and female vocals keep the album lighthearted, especially in "Bandit King and Queen" and "Forget It," which spits out well-timed spoken-word rants. But the instrumental pieces have more to tell. The saxophone (armed to the reed with delay effects) supplies crisp tones that spike through the electric piano and fretless bass rhythms that can get deliciously dark at times. "Ultratumba" sounds more like a "Day of the Dead" cemetery stomp than a Bourbon Street glass-raiser. A carnival gypsy couldn't give a better glimpse at the mischievous N'awlins underbelly, but it remains just that: a glimpse. A good way to test the waters without commitment that sacrifices comfort. (Jacob Richardson) Grade: A-

ANGELS OF LIGHT -- THE ANGELS OF LIGHT SING "OTHER PEOPLE"

· ANGELS OF LIGHT -- THE ANGELS OF LIGHT SING "OTHER PEOPLE" (YOUNG GOD)

Michael Gira's early '80s output with Swans is a virtual blueprint for the Punk fringe's subsequent Hardcore Industrial complex, but he has little interest in being any movement's patron saint. Although he still works a little chaos into the mix, Gira's recent Angels of Light work has found the noted noise architect in a melodically Folksy mood as he crafts a kinder, gentler yet subtly twisted musical persona. On Gira's latest AoL effort, The Angels of Light Sing "Other People", he inhabits several alternate creative universes simultaneously, imagining Lou Reed as Polyphonic Spree's godhead ("Lena's Song"), Stephin Merritt as shaped by Sonic Youth (the brief but potent "Simon is Stronger Than Us"), Stan Ridgway telling stories on an Appalachian porch with a dulcimer and a synth ("Jackie's Spine") and Jeff Tweedy's unrestricted id considering all of the above ("Purple Creek"). Gira still loves his noise but he's expressing through the prism of Angels of Light's soothing-yet-disturbing freeform urban Americana/Electronica. (BB) Grade: B