The Sheila Divine - "The Sheila Divine E.P."

Album review by Danny Alexander

Zone Mondays kick off with a powerful line-up, featuring area favorites Ultimate Fakebook and Fern, as well as a welcome visit by Boston's the Sheila Divine. Their presskit explains that the name derives from the Australian slang for sissies or pussies. As bass player Jim Gilbert explains, "If you're going to be a pussy, you might as well be the very best."

The music on *The Sheila Divine EP* hardly seems wimped out. Although it brings to mind early U2 and the Psychedelic Furs, the musical attack grows increasingly visceral, with a jagged edge to the vocals and a bludgeoning power to the rhythms neither of those old bands suggest. Their management describes them as "Emo-pop . . . with audible influences from Sunny Day Real Estate and Radiohead among others." If that helps you place them, fine, but the most promising thing about this band's recorded material is that it promises to rock, and rock hard. A sissy with a vengeance is something to be!

--Danny Alexander