Best Band: Most violent noise-intoxicated garage rockers

Battleship

"This is the sound of 'Fuck You,'" declares an Amoeba Records in-house publication praising Battleship's 2004 EP Presents Princess. "That's really all I have to say." For more insight, cue up "Parasite," soak in the harsh guitar squalls, pulverizing drums, and scum-coated garage-rock trash production, and sing along: I ... I ... I ... I'm a parasite! Catchy as hell, that. The Oakland band (official MySpace.com slogan: "Oakland's own floating destruction") sits atop a sizable and splendid heap of regional basement-dwelling noise-rockers, revered for majestically volatile and violent live shows that have enamored fans and collaborators, including other local rock luminaries like Gris Gris frontman Greg Ashley (who produced the recently reissued Presents Princess) and avant-noise guru Weasel Walter (who mastered it). With a full-blown European tour and accompanying new record due out this summer, now is the time to climb aboard and bask in the glory of what another critic rhapsodizes as "Really fucking tremendous panic rock." Find something to hold onto, or, better yet, something to throw.