Brant Bjork & the Operators

His underground musical pedigree is stellar: Brant Bjork played drums and wrote songs as a member of the stoner-rock band Kyuss and also produced and drummed for Fu Manchu. His own work retains some of his previous bands’ post-grunge flavor--but just a bit. There’s no ponderous, down-tuned Sabbath-influenced jamming, and in fact, some songs, like "Cheap Wine," are wonderfully bouncy and cheerfully cheesy. Bjork opens and closes the disc with a kicked-back jazzy exploration called "Hinda65," while winningly infectious songs like "Smarty Pants" and "My Ghettoblaster" are funky, trippy, hippie pop. Lounge-influenced keyboard lines intermix wonderfully and whimsically with riffing guitars on the instrumental "Cocoa Butter." --Katherine Turman