Red Aunts: Saltbox

Red Aunts' national punk-rock breakthrough came in the form of #1 Chicken, a raucous slab of screechy all-girl punk that boasted "14 songs 23 minutes" right on its packaging. Subtlety was hardly the Long Beach quartet's stock in trade, but it did a nice job playing viciously concise urban punk for visceral kicks. The new Saltbox also packs 14 songs into the neighborhood of 23 minutes, but it's actually very little like its predecessor, running through a set of punk songs that are eerily influenced by blues and old-school rock 'n' roll. Once in a while, vocal cords are laid to waste and guitars are set to shred. But Saltbox shows evidence of a mysteriously reined-in Red Aunts: The songs are still short, but maturity has blunted their over-the-top impact.