Despite popular belief, Northern Alabama’s music scene no longer revolves around washboards and jugs. Striving to break free from the scrutiny of the rest of the country and the regional reign of the Insane Clown Posse, kids in the south these days have broken through the rebellious tradition of punk rock and heavy metal (even though Alabama remains to be one of the only places in the country where high school kids still acknowledge Tesla as a musical staple) and have traded leather jackets for cardigans and graffited garages for christmas lights in storage sheds.

Huntsville Alabama’s Exalted Ruler 1998 sounds a little bit like My Bloody Valentine making sweet love to Issac Brock and still managing to remain more or less art-rock. The trio keeps it diverse and the tracks from their first EP, “Fake Wayfarers” range in genre from sock-hop to shoe-gaze. The one thing that is consistent with the group are their trudging stretches of instrumentals broken with underscored vocals, reminiscent of Modest Mouse’s 1996 album, “This Is a Long Drive for Someone With Nothing to Think About”.

Exalted’s low-fi nature begs to be something more than just garage oriented indie-rock. Tracks like “Nurses” are undoubtably inspired by Johnny Marr’s guitar bending and are able to mimic without cheapening, whereas “Doo Wop Song” and its unenthusiastic vocals seem like a haunting anachronism, Buddy Holly spaced out on downers at Bonnaroo.

http://www.facebook.com/exaltedruler1998

LoftyJ