Whorn

With a fetid, flatulent blast from Cows vocalist Shannon Selberg's bugle, the Cows return to the noise-rock fray with nothing but bad intentions. Whorn is filled with the kind of brilliant psycho-rock stinkerama that the Am Rep label built its rather dodgy reputation on. The Butthole Surfers pioneered this kind of maladjusted punk, but the Cows have put their own special Midwestern twist on it. Simultaneously fun and completely ugly and repulsive, Whorn is as good as anything these four have previously shat out and will do nothing to endear them to anyone other than the most diehard, extreme music fans. --Adem Tepedelen