Reverse the Curse: The band's new tunes are more dynamic.

Reverse the Curse may be a young band — the three members are only 18 — but its performances are tight and riotous, and club owners like booking them over other high school-aged bands because of its professionalism and humility. Maybe it has to do with the fact that the three members have been playing together since 2002 (yeah, that means they were 12), or maybe it's because the trio sees rock music as a ticket out of its Mantua hometown. Or maybe the reason is even simpler than that.

"We're just really laid back," says singer-bassist Connor Paul Johnson before drummer Joey Regets is quick to add, "This is the only thing we're good at."

While the second part of that theory could possibly be true (Johnson will argue he was a kick-ass basketball player back in seventh grade), the first part couldn't be more misleading. Johnson, Regets and singer-guitarist Ed Starcher are by no means cocky or confrontational, but they're also not shy or reserved; instead they seem to have an endless supply of energy. Whether they're talking about Polar Pops, their joke alt-rock side project Buckwild Child, or Regets' dad leaving a dead squirrel on Johnson's mic (he's a vegetarian), they do it with a bubbling enthusiasm. You could say it merely divulges their ages, but it's this same fuse-one-second-from-hitting-the-bomb vehemence that makes for driving punk songs that rest somewhere between the gruff aesthetics of No Idea Records and sunny So-Cal pop-punk.

When Reverse the Curse first started, they were just three kids who loved Blink-182 and MXPX. Despite aid and encouragement from Regets' dad, who even built them PA speakers to practice with, the band found its age and the rural status of Mantua as serious detriments. The only gig they could score near home was at a county-fair event known as Ox Roast where the audience merely consisted of a few friends and a couple of curious senior citizens.

"They wanted us to play for two hours, but we only had five songs," Johnson recalls. "We just played one set, took a break, replayed the same set and then ate some pig."

Soon the trio began to enter itself in battle of the bands competitions at Peabody's, where it played songs that made it more than obvious what discs they were rocking at home. Eventually the lack of proper performances and the direction of the band grew frustrating for the trio.

"We recorded a six-song demo," says Regets, "and pretty much as soon as we were done, we realized the songs weren't that good."

Many teenage bands don't make it past creating a name or a first sloppy practice, let alone a batch of shows and a demo recording, so if Reverse the Curse had called it a day after those six tunes it would have walked away with an experience worth remembering. Instead, the band proved once again that "laid back" is an ill-fitting label by immediately starting to work on new songs. The result found it getting regular gigs in the past year at clubs like Chuck's Steak House in Akron and the Davenport in Parma Heights. And while the new tunes are much more dynamic and passionate, it's that sense of excitement translated to a live setting that has kept getting the band invited back to play.

"Playing live is really important to us," says Starcher. "I think seeing us live is better than listening to the recordings."

"We're just going to work, save money and go on the road," says Johnson. "We'll live like gypsies if we have to, 'cause this is all we want to do."

Punchline, The Interns, Reverse the Curse: 6 p.m. Saturday, May 10 at the Grog Shop, 2785 Euclid Heights Blvd., Cleveland Heights, 216.321.5588. Tickets: $10 advance, $12 day of show.

John McGrail
Stained Bliss (self-released)
Mindfryenterprises.com

On his latest disc, singer/songwriter/guitarist John McGrail weaves strands of rootsy folk-rock, blues and country with twittering percussion, droning guitars, ambient sounds and eerie, often heavily processed vocals. He covers some adventurous sonic terrain here, roughing up or expanding upon relatively simple melodies, sparse arrangements and raw production, and mixing them in unexpected ways to create an edgy sound on tunes that deal with sober topics ranging from racism to aging and death. "All Our Fallen Tears" opens with a flurry of sound effects before resolving into the song. The disorienting "Anger" juxtaposes violent lyrics with an almost deadpan vocal, plush harmonies and delicate music. Rattling percussion gives "One by One" a noisy bounce until it wraps up with some quiet acoustic guitar. Other songs feel positively ancient. The stark, a cappella "I'll Not Be Fulfilled" feels like a newly discovered traditional mountain ballad and "90 Year Old Man" exudes a mournful blues vibe. — Anastasia Pantsios

John McGrail performs at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 10 at the Bratenahl Community Center (10300 Brighton Rd.). Tickets: $15.

Nick Riffs' Freak Element
The World's Alive (Riffdisc)
nickriff.com

These prog rockers boast they've shared the stage with the likes of Yes, the Moody Blues and Hawkwind. Not sure if that's something you really want to brag about, especially on a press release sent out to rock critics who have pretty much written those bands off on account of their pretentious tendencies. To its credit, Nick Riffs' Freak Element plays with a bit more abandon, jamming recklessly on the opening tune, "The Hidden Path," and rocking out on "Into It." But in the end, anyone who's not a fan of the aforementioned prog-rock acts likely won't find this disc to be of much interest. — Jeff Niesel