This explosive four-song EP shreds ahead with a sound harkening straight back to the flannel-waisted glory days of “college rock,” and refreshingly so. In the midst of a scene still heavily reliant on the eighties, it’s about time someone pried a few nails off the old grunge coffin, which is exactly what Victor Bravo manages to do with balls and originality. Opening song “Dallas” could easily be mistaken for an outtake from Mudhoney’s quitessential Superfuzz Bigmuff, all the way down to the gritty Mark Arm-like falsetto, and the band makes no bones about its influences. Mudhoney is indeed given thanks on the inlay, along with Juliana Hatfield, L7, Superchunk, Love Battery – a veritable pantheon of indie greatness. The middle two songs sever this anchor in favor of some fully inventive and more up-to-date rockin’, followed by another Mudhoney-esque bombshell to round out the set. Victor Bravo may well be the grunge fetishist’s messiah, and this audacious cut, short but sweet, is well worth any good rock fan’s attention.

Favorite: Track 4 “Toxic Tornado”

Steve Gunn is a hard-boiled suburban New Yorker with a PhD in rockology and the propensity to point with full-throttle moxie up to his ears and unflinchingly declare, “Hey! These things ain’t garbage cans, y’know!” sisterray@myway.com