The members of cake like reportedly formed a band because they were sick of listening to their musician boyfriends talk about their bands. They may just get the last laugh.

True, their technique is a bit wanting: Nina Hellman's guitars sound just barely under control, singer and bassist Kerri Kenney plays but a handful of notes per song, and Jody Seifert's drums pound hard but uncertainly. But the trio still manages to build catchy, evocative music out of mykid-could-do-it parts like the haunting two-note hook of the waltz-time "Spaceguy." "Take me to the planet/Call me Janet," Kenney coos to a departed lover.

Cake Like's delectably irritating dissonances hinge on guitar chords you won't find in a Mel Bay instruction book. Sweet, airy passages abruptly give way to gusts of electric discord that recall the darker, starker side of the Breeders. It's not fast 'n' angry punk – Delicious is slow and spare, the abrasive textures and the leisurely, sensual rhythms coalescing into a kind of harsh languor.

Kenney's witty, biting lyrics, delivered in a raspy purr or an anguished squawk, paint everyday life as an onslaught of Lilliputian slings and arrows: petty cruelties, crushes, jealousies, greed. In "Bum Leg" the young narrator claims a faulty gam prevents her from coming out to play, but the real reason emerges in the last chorus. "Your dad works for my dad," Kenney taunts, her voice dripping with childlike contempt.

Although Delicious was clearly well manicured by its producers (Craig Wedren of Shudder to Think and Eli Janney of Girls Against Boys), there's no disputing that Cake Like whip up compelling, original music out of the simplest ingredients. Chops or no chops, they're cool, and they rock. And that, as we periodically forget, is what it's all about. (RS 702)

MICHAEL AZERRAD