Here's some relatively self-important irony anyone not named "Brian Shultz" won't give a fifth of a shit about. Benard released a two-song single in 2005 that I gave a mildly positive review to and had a pretty decent amount to say considering the length. So here's their self-titled "full-length" (eight songs and 22 minutes? Full-length my ass. Just call it an EP -- you're selling it for $6 anyway!) and I really have no idea what to say.

Okay, so the band still construct rough and tumble indie rock tunes that sound vaguely like At the Drive-In. What else? How about how the EP's best, most intense song having the longest title length? "Someday I Might Just Rip Down a Shower Curtain and Wear It as a Cape, Anything Is Possible" is, in another bit of irony, also the shortest song here. How about those riffs in the last song, "Stand Up and Take the Sinnage?" I'm sensing a little bit of Cursive's "The Casualty" / "The Night I Lost the Will to Fight." Just a little bit.

I think my frustration with Benard lies in how absolutely rocking these songs are, yet how forgettable they are. Really, all eight songs are effective slabs of distorted, creative post-whatever, complete with dissonant, frothy vocals á la Planes Mistaken for Stars and lively guitars, but in the end I can't remember much of what actually went on. But hey, at least the experience was enjoyable.

For Benard's next effort, hopefully I'm left speechless for a totally different reason.

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