The night after I first heard Wars (Polyvinyl), the latest from Bay Area combo XBXRX, I had a dream in which one of the band’s members whispered to me that their name means “sebics sericks.” I was struck dumb by the righteous meaning of this: it made absolute sense then, and of course absolutely none afterward. Which is a reasonable metaphor for Wars itself, a topsy-turvy car crash of an album (12 songs in 28 minutes) full of swerves that seem only moments later to be in clear defiance of noise-rock physics. Formed by a group of postadolescent Alabaman miscreants, the band later moved to San Francisco, where they picked up former Chicagoan Weasel Walter, whose manic Morse-code drumming now powers their tweaky, impossibly dense artcore. While their shows are notoriously riotous (both onstage and off), the vibe I get is one of an almost wholesome rambunctiousness–like they’ve somehow managed to retain the chemical makeup of 14-year-olds, full of hormones and high fructose corn syrup. KK Rampage and Ettrick open. a 7 PM, Schubas, 3159 N. Southport, 773-525-2508, $8. A You can also see XBXRX perform at 3 this afternoon for a taping of the kiddie show Chic-a-Go-Go at CAN-TV Studio, 322 S. Green; for info see roctober.com/chicagogo. F
