Girl Band: Holding Hands with Jamie (Rough Trade)

Here's how you subvert expectation.

Call yourself Girl Band and give your debut album a cute title like Holding Hands With James . . . then deliver atonal noisecore, aggressive thrash and declamatory lyrics over lo-fi sonics.

This all-male Dublin four-piece might have emerged in the post-punks days alongside The Fall, Chrome, Pere Ubu and clank'n'grind experimentalists, but here they are bringing their challenging but always surprising sound to the 21^st century.

Some still might not be ready for these nine scouring non-pop pieces in 39 bruising minutes, but -- like the Pop Group, Rip Rig and Panic and others back in the thrilling post-punk days -- they are impossible to ignore.