At last, I am back after what seems like a whole other summer vacation. I still haven’t found out why radio stations dubbed “The Edge” all simultaneously stink to the same degree. Oh well, it’s just something we all must deal with in our daily lives.

No matter which Edge you’re closest to (here in Iowa, we don’t have one, thankfully) one of the groups you won’t hear being played on an hourly basis is Los Angeles’ Gwen Mars. For most of the Magnosheen album, the Gwen Mars sound is like Smashing Pumpkins being played through the hull of Captain Nemo’s Nautilus at maximum depth. Even with effects continually on guitarist Michael Thrasher’s voice, he manages to sound like Billy Corgan much of the time.

The problem with the album is that it fizzles out quickly before it’s half over. “Control” is annoyingly short and has a great, barbed hook to it. The crank continues to “Heal Me” (perhaps the most Pumpkinish sounding of all the tracks), but sputters with the linear, repetitive “Cosmic Dick.” It begins like flames licking the belly of a re-entering space shuttle, but by the time you get past the title track, the flames stop licking. The shuttle must have lost its flavor.

After a while, a sort of repellent, self-centered attitude begins to bleed through the lyrics and music. This added to an inability to repeatedly listen to the album past track seven (“Magnosheen”). Magnosheen is one album that’s easy to start, but may take some endurance on the part of the listener to finish.

On the other side of the coin, a band that gets plenty of radio and stage play (even without an Edge) is Boston’s Letters to Cleo. After changing their rhythm section and releasing their Cherry Disc debut, (previously reviewed approximately a year and a half ago on these same pages), LTC was picked up by Giant Records after South by Southwest. Then they trotted to the studio, rerecorded a couple of tracks (“Here and Now” and “Rim Shak”), re-released Alice and then took on the country.

This summer, the group released its second album, Wholesale Meats and Fish which shows a marked growth between the Alice and now. Simply said, LTC is that snotty, rambunctious little cousin who wouldn’t leave you alone. Making no apologies for being a pop band, the members rub it all into your face with tracks like the rugratty “Demon Rock.”

Lots of guitars, lots of drums and lots of attitude pervade the music, with the production of the album making it sound remarkably like one of their live shows. The Cleo drive leads the music to mimic a warning siren in “Fast Way” and a Doors b-side with “Acid Jed.”

So even though vocalist Kay Hanley says they’re a “big, fat, stupid pop band,” they’re still not going to be bullied by the gloom-and-doom heavy hitters. After all, what can you hold against a band who digs McIlhenny’s Tabasco sauce and has pictures taken with their favorite bud (and I don’t mean “pal”)? They even supply a couple of flame-eating ladies for your viewing enjoyment.

As for upcoming treasures, be on the lookout for The Surahoolies from the Minneapolis area. The Surahoolies are representative of what could be considered a recent musical movement that I call “world rock.”

Blending instrumentation that includes more “classical” instruments with percussion in addition to a drum kit, groups like the ‘Hoolies are taking music back to when people created music instead of cranking it out of a machine. For this end, any band can make easy use of a half-dozen members as they do.

Whatever a Surahoolie is, the band does a great job of setting a framework and going off on a tangent for their live album. This creates a sort of updated groove that owes more to early jazz improvisation than to demographic sensibility. Magic carpet ride? No: cinnamon brown shag rug adventure.

Something that’s along the same line of riding a wave instead plugging a formula is bo bud greene from the Lone Star State. Although more college rock centered than Surahoolies, bbg sheds the indie attitude of many modern rockers and uses hard hooks to create things that aren’t usually heard in rock. This includes lower occurrence of guitar soloing and higher likelihood of two guitars, bass and drums sounding like a symphony here and there.

It’s a lot more about feeling than appearance, so the producer used double recording with Andy Bracht as well as occasional reverb to give a texture to some of the songs.

A simpler way to describe the album is to suggest a good look at the wave on the cover of their album Whatever. It’s not a surfing thing, it’s an ebb-and-flow thing. It’s a beauty coupled with power thing. It’s a continuity of energy thing. It’s a bo bud greene thing.

That does it for this week, oh dear readers. Until next week, stay calm — I know you can’t wait for Tom Jones to hit Iowa. It’s not unusual at all, believe me.