Resembling Static Prevails-era Jimmy Eat World and early day Sparta, Signal to Noise tunes are poppy with catchy hooks and choruses akimbo.

To read Kodiak's press release is to recall Campbell—"Bruce Campbell vs. The Army of Darkness," that is. During an opening sequence, Campbell's character pleads to his medieval captors: "Hey, I never even saw these assholes, before!" For Boulder, Colo.'s Signal to Noise, these assholes are the current crop of cookie cutter twee-mo bands spawning like rats during the Black Death. Resembling Static Prevails-era Jimmy Eat World and early day Sparta, Signal to Noise tunes are poppy with catchy hooks and choruses akimbo. Yet, they also have enough technical guitar work in the mix to keep things interesting. Kodiak is not a fabulous disc, but it is good one. Which, given the current state of "emotional rock," is more than enough. B- | David Lichius

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