Caesars

Caesars is (yet another) Swedish outfit that sounds like it grew up on a steady diet of Nuggets compilations and 40-weight Pennzoil. Fuzzier than a Sunday morning hangover, the guitars are awash in feedback, the vocals sound as if they were recorded by walkie-talkie, and the bass lines could use a few dozen strokes from a lint brush. Yeah, it’s been done before, but the quartet’s U.S. debut is not without its charms. Bliss has a jagged feel that stems from the fact that its tracks were taken from a number of Sweden-only efforts. Bliss careens from no-budget to Spectoresque splendor as the group evolves from sub-basement brain-bashing to a more fully realized sound and vision. Swirling psychedelia infuses “Since You’ve Been Gone,” and “Jerk It Out” swings with a punch-drunk groove that refuses to sober up. The band’s progress is obvious; however, its increasingly prominent use of a Farfisa organ inadvertently invokes Smash Mouth. Fortunately, tracks such as “Sort It Out” — with its lyrical references to smoking crack, sniffing glue and shitting speedballs — will never be found on the Shrek soundtrack, and Caesars’ recent opening slot for Soundtrack of Our Lives proved that the garage-loving quartet has more to offer than derivative Euro trashrock.