xbxrx

Current Oakland residents by way of Mobile, Ala., the anonymous members of xbxrx are notorious for explosive, super-short sets that cross the line between audience and performer: A 30-second show in Austin ended with a member going to the emergency room. The band has released a slew of singles apropos of its abbreviated, aggressive approach, and here we have the first full-length album since 2001's Gop Ist Minee. In a departure of sorts, the 18 tracks on Sixth in Sixeshave actual song titles. It's a concept album about the imminent decline of civilization predicated on a theory called the Sixth Extinction, and sometimes you can actually make out the screaming. This 26-minute opus is being hyped as a work of musical growth and maturity (band members were around 15 years old when they started it), and yeah, Sixth in Sixesis smartly well-produced by Weasel Walter of the Flying Luttenbachers. It's a shining example of hard-charging spazz-metal punk wave; fans of things like Japan's Melt-Banana or even old anarcho-punk (anyone remember Stretchheads?) should dig it. For a conceptual treatise on humankind's environmental impact, Sixthis one cathartically fun listen.