Texas Platters

The Midgetmen

High Life

The second album from these Austin slop-punk mavens can't replicate the beery charms of 2002's Pool Party Emergency. Without departed vocalist Keith Shepherd around to keep the band's Twin/Tone-inspired roar on track, High Life disintegrates into a spiraling muddle of unevenness. You can hear closing time conviction trying to bust through on songs like "Casino and Beer" and "Fanfare (for the Common Man)," but it never quite falls together.