The Catheters

They’re young, they’re cute and they play potent punkish rock that wears its easy-to-spot influences directly on its prep-school shirtsleeve. The group’s Handsome Boy Modeling School singer croons druggily through low-fi distortion, making teen-age girls and rock critics swoon. Nope, it’s not the Strokes; it’s the Catheters, Seattle’s alt-boy-band du jour. Most of today’s hipster groups tote enough baggage to stock a Samsonite convention, so it’s refreshing to hear kids whose knowledge of punk seems to start at Green Day and end with the Murder City Devils. Recorded during a marathon 36-hour session, the group’s sophomore effort has all the sloppy charm and amphetamine clamor of its 1999 debut, with only marginally improved production — one song title, “Bleary Haze,” pretty much says it all. Strident garage anthems such as “I Fall Easy” and “Nothing” are so relentlessly urgent, so proudly unoriginal, that only the most die-hard cynic could snub them.