New and Notable: The Cubists

The Cubists are an experimental rock group from Augusta, Georgia set to release their debut record, Mechanical Advantage, on Tuesday. After years of touring while refining and sculpting their sound, the boys have compiled a solid first record that combines punk-rock urgency with hazy psychedelia and spacey electronica. The five-piece, led by singer-songwriter Noel Brown, show both ambition and promise on on the new album, which sacrifices some cohesiveness for a showcase of the group's diversity and wealth of ideas, a trade-off that works to The Cubists' advantage more often than not.

Many of the songs on the record are long and complex, twisting around common themes with shifting tempos and styles. The strong opening duo of "Fire In The Back Yard" and "The Orchestra Breathes" best capture the group's strengths, the former a driving, energetic alt-rock piece, the latter a spacier, slow-burning track. Much of the remaining material fits somewhere between the two, adding influences from folk ("Best Friends"), metal ("Mechanical Advantage") and ambient rock (Redux). The group cover quite a bit of territory over nine tracks and 50 minutes, and as I mentioned earlier, the very broad scope of the album makes for a surprising but perhaps uneven ride. However, The Cubists are talented enough to succeed in their eclectic endeavors and Mechanical Advantage is thoroughly entertaining and fascinating, suggesting even better things to come from this talented young band.

These guys are off to a great start and deserve your immediate attention, so download "She's Got Blood" from the new album (below) and head over to the band's MySpace page where you can hear more tunes. Oh, and if you ARE interested, Mechanical Advantage is already available digitally right now on iTunes, Amazon, etc.

She's Got Blood (MP3)