(Mint) www.mintrecs.com

Bands like Blue Cheer or early Grand Funk once shaped the blues into a messy, sloppy, druggy, counterculture variation called blues-rock. Now, new bands are bringing it all back home – using that late-1960s sound as a template for a more stripped-down and primal (but still messy, etc.) variation, a blues-rock blues. Owing something to Nick Cave and Fat Possum, not to mention the White Stripes, the two women of Vancouver’s The Pack A.D. (After Death), on Tintype, pack brooding urgency and incantatory excitement into their seemingly nonchalant sound. Becky Black has a raw, moaning scream and plays clumps and clusters of intense little guitar parts featuring scattering and sliding notes. Maya Miller beats the drums with verve. Their best songs have a slow, simmering anguish, like “Bang,” “Paper Bag” and “Gold Rush,” but they can also quicken the pulse on a loud stomper like “Snow.”

Standout Tracks: “Snow,” “Paper Bag” STEVEN ROSEN