Name of Product: "Here We Go Again" CD
Band: Canada's all-girl band Tuuli.
Label: Linus Entertainment Inc.
Websites: http://www.tuuli.com
Price: $12.99
Reviewer: Caryn Havlik

Tuuli's new record "Here We Go" is chock full of unapologetic poppy hooks. It's good that these girls have turned up the distortion on their guitars for their brand of Canadian radio-friendly punk rock, because the layered keyboard noises, un-growly vocals and occasional horn make their act sound much less punk rock than they probably intend.

The higher-vocal ranged cutesy girl vocals will definitely appeal to both young women and the boys who drool over them, but at the same time, they are skillfully assembled and Tuuli has come up with good clean solid melodies.

Clearly, in addition to having grown up (in Canada) on punk-rock and 80's synth pop, these girls have listened to their Dancehall Crashers (great female harmonies), Muffs, Go-Go's and maybe even the Murmurs. Tuuli's faster-tempo stuff works a lot better than the mid-tempo tunes and power ballad (Thousand Stars) and lyrically, they nearly manage stay out of the writing cliche pitfalls but for "heartbreaker, big faker" and "paranoia will destroy ya," on the song, "Heartbreaker".

None of Tuuli's high-energy tunes clocks in too much over 3 minutes, so it's not hard to keep those with shorter attention spans listening. Their single "It's Over" is a classic girl-busting-out-and-not-looking-back break-up song. Most of Tuuli's "yeah"s and "whoa"s are great to imagine estro-crowds singing along to, while the sentiment on "Rockstar Boyfriends" is a great shot at ambitious, male rock-egos who are no good at relationships.

-Oh yeah, and they're really photogenic vixens who dress to thrill as they rock.

Highlights include: It's Over, Rockstar Boyfriends, Who's the Fool Now, Here We Go.

About the reviewer: Caryn Havlik has been playing drums for about 8 years, unprofessionally, and in the NYC area for about 6 of those years. She's likely to be found in dank warehouse basements playing drums for projects that rarely, if ever, get off the ground. A self-taught player, Caryn has studied briefly with Mitch Gottlieb, (ABBA and Blondie cover-band guru), and Paul Chuffo, drummer for the mosh-able jazz quartet, Gutbucket (http://www.gutweb.com), and did time as the drummer for the now defunct cowpunk band Johnny Zhivago & the Near Death Experience (http://jzhivago.tripod.com/main.html). During her tender years, she was beaten into piano lessons, and served as a church organist in her teens, although drumming (kit and tabla) is her main musical focus right now. Caryn plans to open a bakery-café someday in a nice quiet college-town, and needs to know where to find economy-size pastry filling and a small business loan at a decent interest rate.