3 out of 5

Produced by: Steve Albini

Label: My Pal God Records

Exactly the kind of band you hope to discover while absent mindedly sipping on a beer at your local haunt; dis embody the spirit of the back-to-the-crowd rockers, playing for themselves, with the good times that suggests translating into a toe-tapping experience.  ‘You gotta check this band out,’ you say to no one, before the band unceremoniously disappears from the non-stage.

As captured by Steve Albini on, as is often commented, the ironically-named-as-it-was-their-last ‘Historically Troubled Third Album,’ dis maintain the elements as above: you dig this band, but it’s ephemeral.  The confident riffs and muscley Albini drums with those 90s Chicago atonal vocals tap into a primal, crowd-enthusing sense of energy; the tracks hit breaks at the right moments to not wear thin, and the ebb and flow of distortion – and mix of cynicism and sarcasm in the lyrics – is spot on.  But as part of this attitude, dis must also level-set: No song really pierces the ‘single’ veil, and other acts that played in this vein would have more memorable albums.  But dis remains unaffected; you’ll always have a good memory of that band on stage, even if no one else really seems to remember them.