by William Ruhlmann
Kentucky sextet Sleeper Agent is not unlike many other young rock bands in that they borrow riffs, beats, and even snatches of tunes from the many rock bands that have gone before them on their debut album, Celabrasion. Seemingly absorbing lots of Nuggets-era garage rock along with other '60s rockers and some punks, they re-create some familiar sounds on the disc. Where they differ from their predecessors is in the way they combine those familiar sounds. Only one track on the album exceeds three-and-a-half minutes, but in these short tracks Sleeper Agent packs some busy arrangements that come across as spirited, if busy, mash-ups; they're like a battle of the garage bands in which several bands are on-stage at the same time. So, for instance, lead-off track "Get It Daddy" boasts several different time signatures and sections, with different choruses and hooks, as if it were a medley of a bunch of songs, and all of that is … » Read more