Sin City tunes will rattle your windows

The end of the year is almost upon us, which means it's time to sit back and reflect on some really important stuff in '07, such as the improved prospects of an Israeli-Palestinian peace, the continued receding of the polar ice caps and, most importantly, the best local death metal tunes about flying brains.

Yes, it was a good year for music in Vegas, and to commemorate it as such, it's time for my annual mixed tape roundup of my favorite Sin City tunes of the past 12 months.

Here's what I've dug the most:

MISERICORDIAM, "Insomnia": Does their drummer's heart pump Red Bull? Seriously, the guy deserves combat pay for the ultra-violence he unleashes behind the kit, powering this blast-beat infatuated death squad until they're less a band than a battering ram.

SHE TURNED US INTO TREES!, "I Accidentally Put a Chorus in This Song ... Oops": Relentlessly frenzied power pop, equal parts sugar and cyanide, with doe-eyed vocals and your heart in a vice.

EX-DINOSAUR, "Ambulance": Fractured, yet melodic IDM that's a pulsing kaleidoscope of beats and twitchy rhythms as malleable as wet taffy.

SOMOBE, "Something's Gonna Happen": Rival MCs are like "the Muppets fighting Conan" when it comes to this fast-rising duo whose live, sample-free hip-hop brings the heat with rhymes, not gats.

SWENSON STREET HOOKERS, "SSBDSS": Scabrous street punk with one fist in the gutter and the other in your face. At the end of the song, their frontman, Spencer the Menace, just starts barking like a rabid dog. Better invest in a tetanus shot.

AVENGER OF BLOOD, "Poserslaughter": Thrash may be back, but these leather-encased metal lifers never abandoned it in the first place. Witness this blazing, Kreator-worthy ripper, which rumbles like a Sasquatch fight.

JIMMY MCINTOSH, "Rogent": Jeff Beck and Ronnie Wood join this local guitar ace to render the six-string a bluesy blowtorch. McIntosh teaches a class in rock history at UNLV, and this might be his most impassioned lesson yet.

ANTHEMS, "All Over": These dudes live up to their name with this hard-core battle cry propelled by rapid fire machine gun riffing and a frontman who roars like a polar bear with a hernia.

THE BIG FRIENDLY CORPORATION, "The Joy of Serving Others For a Living": A bittersweet pop gem with whirring keys and vocal sighs about somehow resisting the urge to spit in a rude customer's Coke. Puts the blue in blue collar.

PAN DE SAL, "Bravo My Peeps, Bravo": All the kudos belong to this free-range collective whose whirring, effects-laden art pop sounds like a more playful re-imagining of "Disco Volante" -- era Mr. Bungle.

HOLY SMOKES, "Walk Away": A harmonica-fired, bar room jam about never giving an inch from a band that never has. Avoid this one if there's any field sobriety tests in your near future.

Jason Bracelin's "Sounding Off" column appears on Tuesdays. Contact him at 383-0476 or e-mail him at jbracelin@ reviewjournal.com.