The album was originally meant to be released in 2008, but inactivity and a recording process with no end in sight caused drummer and founding member J. Michael Ward to quit the band. It seemed as if STNNNG’s third full-length would never see the light of day until drummer Ben Ivascu joined. With a new drummer and a renewed outlook, The Smoke of My Will has finally been released.

The intro to the album, “Cluster Drome,” serves as a calm before the storm. An ominous arpeggio and weird bends build up the feeling that something isn’t right — it’s the musical equivalent of the feeling one gets when in an empty playground at an elementary school that’s been closed for years. The drums of the second track, “The Ugly Show,” then pound through that landscape with the force of a runaway train. One of the best things about STNNNG is that every musician is talented and the effort to push themselves further is obvious — each member is playing something completely different and technically sound, but it usually merges together perfectly. At times the instruments sound at war with each other, which gives a beautifully demented dissonance and compliments singer Chris Besinger’s desperate rantings. Standouts on the album are the previously mentioned “Ugly Show,” the fractured, driven-mad-from-too-many-conspiracy-theories “New Black Hole,” and the softer closing track “Tremblin’ Blues.”

At first listen, STNNNG was hard to get into. After a few listens to this album, though, I really respect their unique take on noise rock. There isn’t much out there quite like this band and it’s easy to tell that they are way ahead of their time.

(Modern Radio Record Label, PO Box 8886, Minneapolis, MN, 55408)

There is certainly something distinctive about The Chambermaids’ sound, but it had me rifling through stacks of old LPs like the back of a kitchen cupboard. If you were hosting an early ‘80s dance party you could totally slip Down In the Berries in with anything by Pylon or My Bloody Valentine and no one would be the wiser. Or they’d be somewhat the wiser — a guest might ask you which Love Tractor album was playing because, “I thought I had all their stuff.”

But enough with Georgian comparisons. The ‘maids are from the Twin Cities, and while one of the best cuts on “Down” is titled “1982,” these guys have only been doing their thing since 2003. I mean, this is a great band that doesn’t have a Wikipedia entry yet.

What they do have is an early-alt innocence. A straight-up drummer who hasn’t heard of carpel tunnel and is going to snap the snare as hard as he likes. An at-the-precipice-of-feedback lead guitar grind. The lead singer sounds a teensy bit like Ian McCulloch, but the rest of the band doesn’t mimic The Bunnymen. They keep it simple and tight. The bassist Martha keeps everything on a fixed rate of assent, a hypnotic thrumming akin to Mike Mills’ early REM stuff. Apologies for the continued Athens comparison, but it’s hard to escape.

This is no cover band, though, and the music being made is not pastiche. It’s definitely worth a listen, and a careful and hopeful eye for what comes next for this act.

(Modern Radio Record Label, PO Box 8886, Minneapolis, MN 55408)

(Modern Radio Record Label, PO Box 8886, Minneapolis, MN 55408)