Album Of The Day

Parthenon Huxley is the best songwriter you've never heard of. And his band, P.Hux, is the best rock band you've never cranked up on your stereo.

P.Hux's first album, "Deluxe" (unfathomably now out of print), was my favorite album of the year in 1995. I even put that in writing, topping my "Best of '95" list for the Daily Aztec at SDSU, beating out great records from Belly, Matthew Sweet, Supergrass, Blur, and Radiohead.

So as not to bog things down with 12 years of interim albums, side projects, and personal tragedy, let's cut to the chase: P.Hux has a new album, "Kiss The Monster", and it's the best album of the year. Again.

How good is it? It's perfect. Perfect pop rock. It's the best of all worlds: instantly hummable melodies and rock candy crunchy guitar riffs, anchored by superb musicianship ("great chops" as my cousin would say), bold production, thoughtful, poetic, human lyrics, and echoes of the Beatles, ELO, and The Move.

Fuck it. Just go to the iTunes store and listen to all the samples. Buy it. Tell your friends. If you live on the East Coast, go see him live.

If Echo and the Bunnymen's 2005 "comeback" album, which went totally ignored, was a sign that the music industry is fucked, P.Hux playing living room shows in Baltimore should have hell freezing over as I write.

If you're even slightly sick of the shit on the radio. If the 50 Cent vs. Kanye West showdown has your eyes rolling back into your head. If you want an amazing record no one else has, that you can show off to your friends when they ask you, "This is really good...who IS it?"

Turn yourself on to P.Hux.