Selby Tigers

Known for swanky costumes reminiscent of vintage B-52s and beneath-the-bunker rock that echoes X in its glory days, the Selby Tigers have made plenty of noise in only a few years together. The outfit's 3-D sound juxtaposes angular guitar clatter and gum-snapping backbeats with the sassy sandpaper pipes of Arzu "D2" Gokcen and hubbie Nathan Grumdahl's relatively tamer voice. While this concoction often results in tunes that sound like they were purchased off-the-rack at House of Large Sizes, the Tigers have more going on than corn-fed imitation. The St. Paul, Minnesota, quartet's ballistic tendencies are tempered by a fright-wigged-out weirdness and a refusal to take itself too seriously. And while the quartet's gravitation toward the quirky ("Neighbor With a Defect," "Cheerleading Is Big Business") hasn't gone away, its second full-length rocks with a harder edge than its charming 2000 predecessor. Curse is light years from brilliant, but it delivers plenty of joy-buzzer-in-cheek pleasure.