Few guitar tones can match twang for evocative effect, and on Ten Kens' debut, that sound instantly drops you in the middle of a late night in the middle of nowhere. But in the hands of this Toronto duo, the nocturnal expanse feels unnervingly claustrophobic. While Ten Kens' song titles may speak in country tongues (“Y'all Come Back Now”), their raucous honky-grunge rave-ups speak more to a small-town experience spent hanging out in empty convenience-store parking lots, minds numbed to the point where even the thought of slitting someone's throat evokes laughter instead of terror. Dean Tzenos' suffocated vocals only reinforce the helpless feeling of a no-way-out world where the only escape from a life of ennui or imprisonment is - as demonstrated by the distorted shocks and shouts of “Worthless and Oversimplified Ideas” - to sing yourself silly.

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