After two years spent staining stages across the States, This Moment in Black History has built quite the rep among the edgy rock illuminati. Their recorded output so far has been but a muddy hint; this au courant crew is slyly stacked with indie-rock war vets, battle-scarred enough to know that now’s the time to drop a 50-megaton debut full-length.

Choosing producer Jim Diamond (White Stripes, Electric Six) to capture their cataclysm was perfecto. Midwesterncuttalistick is all crash ‘n’ burn ‘n’ crash again. The band has embraced what separates it from the neo-No-Wave fray it’s lumped in with: (deep breath) warped memories of all those choppy Fugazi wannabes at the Euc, channeled with the wild abandon of ’80s hardcore by a bunch of boozehounds. It all shoots and sparks around like an arson at a Kentucky roadside fireworks stand.

This article appears in May 12-18, 2004.