There are many different superficial warning signs that can be helpful in anticipating an inferior listening product, reveals a recent study conducted by the Pitchfork Department of Dissing Paris, Texas. According to test results, the most dependable of these telltale symptoms is the appearance of rhymes in a record's tracklisting. Paris, Texas' new EP, Brazilliant!, sets off that alarm twice in a mere five songs, with "Dress Stress" and "Razor New Neighbors." And this is giving them the benefit of the doubt that they didn't intend for the title of "400.000" to rhyme.

Elsewhere, however, names prove to be misleading. For instance, the members of the band hail from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which is actually quite some distance from the city they snatched their name from. Thankfully, singer Scott Sherpe doesn't attempt a fake southern accent, instead relying on the time-tested fake British one for his vocal delivery. Also, the title of this release, Brazilliant!, seems to imply that the band has decided to switch gears to a different set of indie trends, emulating Os Mutantes or Tom Zé over the Promise Ring. But worry not, little punks, for Paris, Texas is still on your side. Turns out the name has nothing to do with a change in artistic direction. Even the record's opening song, "Le Tigre," is deceiving-- it's not about Kathleen Hanna's latest project, unless she is, in fact, the person Sherpe refers to as "like a tiger" who lives her life, metaphorically, "in a cage."

Brazilliant! marks the first appearance of newly added second guitarist Nolan Treolo. But Paris, Texas the Quintet scarcely makes any leaps in texture or sound from their original line-up. If anything, engineer Mark Haines and Smart Studios are owed credit for supplying the band with a big, up-front sound that many better bands are never able to afford.

Over the course of five songs and fifteen minutes, Paris, Texas manage to remain in every tidy pigeonhole one might be inclined to place them in. There's just enough variation from one riff, chorus or drumbeat to the next that they count as different parts of different songs. What there isn't enough of is a significant impact or reason to take interest. The closest this band comes to being unique and listenable is on the closer, "400.000," a reasonably decent pop tune that rides on a snare drum and manages to not be completely marred by Sherpe's vocals, which are luckily buried under the guitars.

Brevity is wit. And while Paris, Texas somehow manage to prove even that timeless axiom wrong with their inane puns and ham-fisted rhyme schemes, the ultimate saving grace of Brazilliant! is that it's just an EP. The only thing that pushes its rating just barely above that of its predecessor, the full-length So You Think It's Hot Here?, is that it's much shorter, thus abbreviating the annoyance it causes.

-Al Shipley