This band prefers to spell its name "caUSE co-MOTION!"; you know it's got to be pretty good to make up for something so idiotically precious. I wouldn't go overboard with the Cause Co-Motion praise, but these men do make some of the better C86-inspired shambolic indie-pop around today. This latest single, on the revitalized Slumberland label, is a pretty standard call from the Co-Motion playbook. The a-side, "I Lie Awake," is the first of three slivers of thoroughly catchy, neoclassicist garage-pop, each one genial and well written enough to make up for the general lack of uniqueness. "Cry for Attention" varies it up slightly, slowing things down and ramping up the drama. This record sounds like the Television Personalities rerecorded Nuggets, or, in other words, a late-oughts band channeling mid-'80s interpretations of popular music from the '60s.  But that's pretty much all rock and roll is anymore anyway, right?

Garrett Martin