September 25 2002

Antioch pop punk quartet Divit broadcasts their career intentions – loud and clear – on their Nitro debut. Propulsive enough to satisfy the Warped Tour warriors and polished enough to smooth the rough edges of a Hot Topic shopping experience, the Gilman Street Project favorites are obviously making a bid for hearts, minds, and playlists with their jump up from Berkeley's Coldfront Records to that well-funded '90s paradox, the major-indie label. How ironic then – and a little predictable – that Divit's Coldfront debut, Tension, breathes with so much more liveliness than Broadcaster. Here the band soups up a sleek brand of modern rock more Foo Fighters than Green Day, more Weezer than Rancid. In other words, the whole affair has the whiff of punk-by-committee – highly self-conscious product that hammers out the distinctive glitches, compresses the vocals flatter than sheet metal, and manages to transform the guitars and drums into the museum-quality '00 equivalent of Def Leppard's mechanistic pop metal. Of course, that doesn't mean Divit lack a heart beating beneath the proper pop sheen: covocalist-guitarist and songwriter Mick Leonardy pleads with a buddy bent on self-destruction on "William," bitterly bids an ex success on "No Regrets," and bellows against everyday ennui on "Tomorrow" and "So Very Ordinary." It's enough to make you wonder: Are these toe-tapping yet airless productions the only mainstream pop cultural response to manly angst – the only way to make men's emotions, or, if you insist, emo rock – commercially palatable? Divit play Sat/28, Six Flags Marine World, Vallejo. (415) 402-6700; Oct. 2, Blakes, Berk. (510) 848-0886. (Kimberly Chun)

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