Third Grade Teacher

Many writers will, and have, run amok with the schoolyard metaphors when reviewing Los Angeles band Third Grade Teacher. Today, it’s not so much a novelty that a teacher performs in a rock and roll band (Guided By Voices’ Robert Pollard anyone?) C’mon people, get creative. The same might be asked of Third Grade Teacher. Fronted by elementary school teacher Sabrina Stevenson, the band is most enjoyable when channeling its holy trinity of muses, The Stooges, early Hole and The Muffs. “Roll It Up” poses two questions: Does the Los Angeles School District drug test its employees? And secondly, does the world really need yet another song about weed in rhymed couplets? (“Smokin’ it is really fun/ It’s number one. … I wanna’ get high/ It’s no lie”). The album’s best song is its last. “Dusty O’Merryweather,” wrapped in steel wool-like guitar squall, shakes off any illusion of safety that the album’s clichés cling to. (And yes, I just dangled a preposition.)