Erase Errata: At Crystal Palace

Erase Errata sounds much like countless indie bands that have streamed out from the West Coast since the early-'90s heyday of so-called "riot grrrl" music. But ease into the group's tight spaces and wide-open grooves, and it becomes clear that its songs serve as rich crystallizations more than beholden retreads. At Crystal Palace trades on treble-pierced guitars and straight-legged sidesteps, but Erase Errata commands its idiom enough to grow it out and reel it in. The bass and guitar in "Ca. Viewing" careen through a fast, jabbering conversation full of agreements, giggles, and sighs. A trumpet rides over a pocket of hi-hat heat to make a haunted hymn of "Go To Sleep"; it's math-rock with nary an equation in sight. "The White Horse Is Bucking" makes a pointed play on its title as it imagines Laidback's barnstorming '80s single "White Horse" stoked up with nose strips and an urge to run. The guitar-bass-drums interplay signals a band perfectly in tune with its scaling screech, and Jenny Hoyston's frenetic vocals stick to a get-in/get-out habit echoed by the music, which stays healthily slim even on Palace's fuzzier, more expansive second half. Erase Errata knows the ways of economy in both senses of the term, and though it fits neatly into the rash of albums helping punk get its groove back, At Crystal Palace casts a long shadow during its 27-minute seethe.