Listening to The May Fire’s album Right and Wrong, I feel a little bit cooler than I actually am. In real life I am not very cool, so this is a new experience for me and I think I like it.

Why so cool, The May Fire? Is it your slightly distorted vocals? Your deliberately vague, kinky lyrics? (“Oh please untie me,” begs a song called “Loveletter.”) Is it the angry tempo of your elaborate drums? Whatever it is, I am nodding my head to the infectious noise shooting rapid-fire out of my speakers – and not in a lame, inhibited, white-girl way. No, I am nodding with precision and skill. If I were at a show and nodding this way, the people around me would nod back in approval of my cool nodding. Something about this well-crafted, high-energy noise is carrying me to a higher plane of coordination, and I have added +10 to my street cred stats.

The band members, the extremely cool-named Catty Tasso and El Pipe, won’t be able to escape White Stripes comparisons. That’s what you get when your band is composed of one girl and one guy. And also what you get when you sound a little like the White Stripes, which they do. But while the sound is reminiscent of other bands, it is never derivative. This is an original album which can cool you up in a hurry, and I recommend picking it up soon.

Favorite Track: Track 2, “Nothing Today”