Big drums, punching bass, rollicking guitars. Distortion and melody, piano and harmony. Curbside Journal are a rock band in ever sense of the word, rocking out to a degree that sugarcoats the pill of a debut release. From the drum roll and guitar fuzz of the opening seconds on "The Fall That's Coming" through the final droning chords of "Tribute" Pacific Standard Time pleases the ear. Barksdale and Fedorekno switch vocals and shuttle between harmonies with a delicate precision and a nagging somberness that frame Curbside Journal's sound and give it an identity. The self reflecting qualities of songs like "Left Alone In the Dark" quickly become addictive, every track luring you toward the REPEAT button, tempting you to ignore the others. Each song contains both tonal and rhythmic dynamics unrivaled by any debut releases in recent memory. Martin's drumming and Raumann's bass work shift between time signatures freely and independently of each other and the guitars while maintaining a uniform vibe throughout the song.

I really can't say enough good things about this record. It isn't often that a band comes along and simply makes me think of rock music without any accompanying tags. There are no math or emo or lo-fi disguises covering Curbside Journal's music.

I've always found that my impression of an album is as strongly colored by its visual components as its music. I can still remember the label's color for several of my childhood favorite LPs, as if there were something intrinsically gray and brown about The Who's Quadrophenia, for example. So it is that the initially puzzling image on the cover of Curbside Journal's CD - an aerial photograph of what could be the Pacific coastline, juxtaposed with images of molded glassware - somehow seems to cohere with the music on the CD.

Thinking this through, both the glass and the coastline, with its mountains and coastal alluvial plains, are formed through a conflict of forces: silica sand and heat for the glass, plate tectonics and erosion for the coastline. So the fact that Curbside Journal's music is tense, fraught, and sometimes shattered with emotion is only appropriate. Vocal lines often intertwine, as if in a conflictual internal dialogue. The guitar parts are often built around the play of slightly discordant arpeggios, open strings left unresolved as the rest of the chord pushes in another tonal direction. "Building the Self Down" is a fine example: one guitar repeats its figure while the other gradually changes its part, and the chord progression is primarily defined by the shifting tones of the bass, conflicting with the static nature of the main guitar.

The CD would benefit, though, from a bit more sonic variety. Even though the guitar arrangements are skillfully written and performed, and the songs are structurally intriguing (particularly the multi-part "Tribute"), moments when other instrumental colors shine through, like the piano on "Resolve Met Match" and "Tribute" or the acoustic guitar in the middle section of "Die Cast," leave me wanting more tonal variety. All told, though, Pacific Standard Time leaves a positive and intriguing impression.