Champion comes fully loaded with ten infectious songs that are full of pop, punk, dance, rock angst, redemption and faith, but with a definable style. Songs like, "Warm Me Up" seem capable of setting off car alarms several blocks away. These are hyper-electric songs that are completely, inescapable hits. Not guilty pleasures, but a pleasure to listen to. The Audition make all the right moves, without being conservative. "Heaven For the Weather" is sun-kissed powerpop tune, featuring long, winsome vocals, acoustic-tinged guitar hooks, and a lyrical love story that discovers new shades of bittersweet hope.

Every song sticks, especially the punk kiss-off on "Hell to Sell," and the goose-bumping closer, "Have Gun Will Travel," with it's fatalistic comparisons to the wild west, and current political climate.

The Audition desire's to conquer the mainstream, to hold the global airwaves hostage to their crunchy, choruses, and heavy emo underpinnings. Let's hope that this larger-than-life debut is merely the first step to a fruitful, idiosyncratic career. The Audition has my vote as the first band to be chosen for The Warped Tour this year. - Phil Rainone

Anna Kramer & the Lost Cause - The Rustic, Contemporary Sounds Of... (Internationalhits.com)

The Rustic, Contemporary Sound Of... opens with "All Those Pretty Things," a song stuffed full of rock & roll, blues roots and recent branches. The fat, thumping drum (Adam Renshaw), and bass (Shannon Mulvaney) cadence is punctuated by a nasty, revebarating guitar sound that is offset by Anna's come-hither, love-vibration vocals, that are Roller Derby-worthy.

The Lost Cause play songs that are as authentic as the juke joints where they probably heard their first rock & roll songs. Tunes like "Death Comes Knockin' at the Door," "Da Da Rock" (cool title), are Stones' "Out Of Our Heads"-era grooves that add squealing harmonics, and hairpin curves, as Anna adds her best Strangeloves' vocal of "I Want Candy." This band knows the old ways by heart, but they've also grown up on Led Zepplin, Mountain, and AC/DC, and it shows in rough, righteous ways. "When You See Him," starts off with a rockabilly rumpus room vibe, that, after a false ending is turned into a voodoo soaked Blue Cheer-like masterpiece!

The Lost Cause also have a country & western side. Songs like, "Got My feet on the Ground" and "You Think You know Me" are acid-blues- mid-tempo ballads with ringing, scarred guitar work, showing that Anna Kramer & the Lost Cause know how to do more than just shake 'em down. They capture the bottled lightning of what their live show must sound like, on record. The mojo and vibe that's created on, The Rustic, Contemporary Sounds Of... is for those of us who still believe that rock & roll is heaven on earth. - Phil Rainone

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