Crystal Antlers have returned to their roots as an agile power trio of singer/bassist Johnny Bell, drummer Kevin Stuart and guitarist Andrew King and signed with high-powered L.A. independent Innovative Leisure to release their new album Nothing Is Real. The band have accrued plenty of stories in a short space of time: their debut 7' was funded by a friend who also happened to be a bank robber; they completed the FYF Fest tour in a veggie-oil powered school bus, which got them on the front page of the Los Angeles Times. Nothing Is Real is Crystal Antlers going beyond the beyond, with songs that rattle and ricochet from desolation to delirium. Opener 'Pray' sounds like what would have happened if Black Flags Greg Ginn had produced the first Psychedelic Furs single; 'Persephone' and 'Anywhere But Here' match the desperate, relentless rhythm of the Wipers with the inside-out guitar melodies of the Pixies, 'Licorice Pizza' recalls lost cult-punk heroes like the Flesh Eaters or the Embarrassment. On Nothing Is Real, youll feel as much as hear echoes of bands like Wire, Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr., especially on the bleak closer 'Prisoner Song' bands who knew beauty and noise could be the same thing. And for the first time ever on a Crystal Antlers recording there are also drum machines, synths and even 4/4 drum beats.