Fuck "The Powerpuff Girls." It's not bad enough that the crime-fighting trio's huge, jaundiced eyes haunt me as they stare from the backpacks, t-shirts, and Burger King watches of little girls all over the city; the merchandising tour de force-cum-television show also concludes with a Bis song. This means millions of homes are being invaded daily by the most aggressively obnoxious Scottish band in contemporary music. That's absolutely reprehensible.

Furthermore, fuck the powers that be at "The Powerpuff Girls" for giving Bis the opportunity to record the song in the first place. Early releases like Bis Vs. the D.I.Y. Corps and This Is Teen-C Power should have been sonic suicide notes. Bis were a fad that never quite caught on; instead of fifteen minutes, they had three-- when they appeared on "Top of the Pops." Maybe the band's imminent demise was wishful thinking on my part, but the fact that the Cartoon Network adopted Bis as their very own Alan Thicke has postponed any break-up proceedings.

On this outing, Bis continue the retarded new wave retreads prominent on 1999's Social Dancing. The first 45 seconds of the album's opener, "Dead Wrestlers," combines electro-pop with a thick disco bassline a la New Order. When ragged guitars join in during the chorus, the song disintegrates into something even Republica would have disowned. The arena-sized "Are You Ready?" is half-speed two-step, with beats only fit for handspringing and tumbling. The song could very well give 2 Unlimited staples like "Twilight Zone" and "Get Ready for This" a run for their money at cheerleading competitions.

The 80's revivalism is only made worse by the perpetually grating Manda Rin on vocals. Rin sings with the finesse of a kindergarten brat with her hands stuck in her ears and her tongue lapsing out of her mouth. She's particularly repugnant when tossing off Skid Row-style introspection, like on "Are You Ready?": "My heart beats fast as I try to forget/ What's hiding in my head/ Will it ever change, or will it end?/ Some days I can't pretend."

Sci-Fi Steven shares vocal duties, and, while technically a better singer, he sounds uncannily like Human League's Philip Oakey. Still, a slightly better voice will improve lyrical mediocrity. On "How Can We Be Strange?" he pleads, "I'm not a fascist/ Just wish that folk wouldn't be so passive/ Toward the freak in the subconscious/ It's in us all so don't be cautious." The song's social commentary about people being too "normal" could have been ripped from the sewn pages of a high school freshman's marble notebook. It's endemic of the band's globe-sized respective shoulder chips that make Bis more ridiculous.

As they have been for over a half a decade, Bis continue to rage against a machine that doesn't care, and one that won't be won over by their rampant childishness. Their music is kitsch gone wrong, and the fact that they're sometimes aware of their cornball tendencies doesn't redeem the piss-poor material. Even if they were to mature lyrically, the fashionable new wave novelty on Music for a Stranger World suggests that Bis are, and always will be, tyke-minded copycats.

-Richard M. Juzwiak