A lot of CDs come in here fronting all sorts of no-wave grrrl-ness, but most of the time they turn out to be worthless posture-fests. Not their fault — after all, Lydia Lunch is what, a great-grandmother now or whatnot, and being a little bit weird is basic pleb fashion, from tats to Skelanimal neckties. Indianapolis band We Are Hex — led up by singer Jilly, whose shrieks are the sound of a million drunken cheating psychobitch girlfriends freshly caught — are what you’re really looking for, a next-gen X-Ray Spex without Hole’s metal trappings. Today it seems like the stark raving freakout is a lost art form, as though the ’80s were just a series of Duran Duran singles backgrounding a rather unsettling episode of Saved By the Bell, but in reality, back then, as it is now, there was an unhinged, anarchic scariness in the air. Jilly and her power-trio boy-toys (three guys too technically adept to be considered no-wave) know about that gaping space, and they sound as desperate and crazed and punkish as anyone you’ll encounter this year — think Yeah Yeah Yeahs without the money.

A — Eric W. Saeger