"Like a vibration, my reputation is making the
rounds at bars," snarls Parker Gispert, kicking off The Whigs' second
full-length, Mission Control. It's wishful thinking: For the most part, The
Whigs manage little more than cross-breeding the dullest aspects of
Strokes-esque formalist garage-rock with the all-volume, all-the-time approach
of the Foo Fighters at their least subtle. With drums drained of nuance and guitars
always overpowering, the basic song structures sound formulaic. The few songs
with radical differences stand out as models of power-pop craft: A brass
section makes the title of "I Got Ideas" believable, while stripping down
"Right Hand On My Heart" to guitar, drums, and vocals for most of the running
time shows terrific promise lurking underneath.