Two years ago, the lyric "I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me?" was thrust into the catchphrase spotlight by modern rock radio stations. If they ever sniff out "Threatened," the opening number on Howle's debut release, "Your personality's cool / but your character sucks" will be on the lips of many a teenager.

I'm not complaining. It's a catchy slab of Pretenders- esque rock and roll that would make a good number one single in any home or office. Cooler yet is that Howle doesn't stop at giving us one good song. She brought a bunch. I hate to compare her to Ani DiFranco (if only because Ani would get off on it), but there are similarities. Howle's got a voice that could knock a buzzard off of a shitwagon at 60 paces... no, actually, that's the stench of all the unsold copies of the new Stone Temple Pilots record.

I digress. What it all comes down to are the songs. You can actually sing along with most of them, smile warmly, and then wanna play the whole damn thing again. I also don't know many songwriters who can do a decent tune about a death in the family ("The Parlor") and then do a song about a parakeet's rant against humans ("Parakeet Protest Song"). I hope she goes ahead and bursts, but not before I've had the chance to check her out live.

-Jason Josephes