These Moaners will surprise you

The Moaners will no doubt be likened to the White Stripes for the fact that their monochromatic blues-rock is impressive and created by a twosome. True, Jack and Meg do it better, but singer/guitarist Melissa Swingle and drummer Laura King are just out to make some noise -- noise that's deceptively complex, despite its simple components: one voice, two instruments. Their debut album, Dark Snack, amounts to twelve ballads -- 35 minutes long -- of forward-moving estrojam, punctuated with a raw yet controlled, locomoting guitar sound and drums as crashing as a Fat Albert-topped human pyramid. \nSwingle's rough-edged voice is astoundingly similar to that of Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon in the way it sweetly scrapes the high notes. Her lyrics reference the long-past nights of lying awake counting and recounting sheep -- desperate love, heartbreak and hard times. The refrains are in a somewhat PJ Harvey-esque minor key, but the bleakness isn't at all relentless and by no means is it suffering. The unapologetic sexuality and macho blues are what really reaches the listener. \nSwingle references Flannery O'Conner's literature alongside distorted guitars and name-calls with roundabout redundancy in "Terrier," and evokes the lyrics of a Southern blues icon in "Elizabeth Cotton's Song." In "Paradise Club," her variation of the oft-covered "House of the Rising Sun" that was made popular by the Animals in the '60s, Swingle staves off lamenting work at a local strip joint because of the not-bad wages, crooning, "Don't have to/Don't have to strip no more," with no less angst and delayed pitch fall than characters in a kung-fu film. \nSwingle and King met at a show where their former bands Trailer Bride and Grand National were playing together, and the two proceeded to mesh like college kids and alcohol. Recording and drinking Sparks -- a caffeinated, alcoholic Sunkist-tasting beverage -- the two have crafted music to make the sun rise for a new day. \nRemember the scene in "When Harry Met Sally" where Meg Ryan moans in a coffee shop like it is nobody's business? Similarly, these Moaners will catch you off guard, perk your ears and surprise you.