(Summer Secret)

www.summersecretrecords.com

This Tar Heel trio seem to be making waves in their home state and if you like your rock heavy, well, they've got it in spades. Leader Eric Wallen was previously in My Dear Ella who apparently were more slight in sound. With Minor Stars he wants to kick out the jams and after dropping out of a Duke University PHD program nearly a decade ago, who can blame him.

Taking a page out of recent songbooks of Dinosaur Jr and The Melvins but not too proud to admit they like Black Sabbath too, the band turns things up to 11 and hopes you brought the right ear plugs. On "Dead Weight" the pounding rhythm drive the tune but the crunchy riffs are along for the ride (a clunky guitar lead comes in midway through) while "Mirror" swipes a riff from Masters of Reality and vocals even sound a slight bit like early Ozzy. A few of the tunes take one toke over the line in the name of stoner rock (the beginning of "Black Lake" sounds a bit too much like a Foghat tune) but these guys are unique enough where it will be cell phones in addition to Bic lighters being hoisted at the shows.

Standout Tracks: "Dead Weight", "Ready or Not", "Mirror" TIM HINELY