Remember Fat Albert's junkyard band? Skeleton Key is that band all grown up and hooked up to a houka. Percussionist Rick Lee is the key -- he's got a kit of various scrap items that give Skeleton Key a real pulse.

Producer Dave Sardy (of Barkmarket) and mixer/engineer Eli Janney (of Girls Against Boys) pee all over this disc, and that's not a bad thing. SK careens off of all the walls in the studio and doesn't let up for the whole thirty-two minutes. While most of it lands in Girls Against Boys' indie camp, check out "The Only Useful Word," which owes more to Tom Waits than anybody else.

Be sure to dig their live show, too. Lee's a full-on motherfucker with his dumpster- diving prizes.

-Jason Josephes