'Weapons' of A** Destruction Weapons, the quartet's sophomore full-length, is a frolicsome, aural tickling session, loaded with amusing couplets and a musical playfulness that could bring a smile to the face of even the most bitter music snob. The band's genre defying and whimsical bent would be a disaster in most hands -- Barenaked Ladies have taken similar ingredients and ended up with a steaming-hot bowl of diarrhea. Buckra have a musical tactfulness that keeps them from even approaching "joke band" status. And their original arrangement skills and solid chops help maintain a relative cohesiveness from start to finish. Like the self-crafted album cover suggests, Buckra is indeed cartoonish. But it's a damn good cartoon -- more Simpsons than Looney Tunes. It's the band's explicit gift for detailing that makes them miles beyond mere goofydom. Weapons has innumerable great moments within the individual songs, resulting in an album that offers something new with each listen. Weapons is the perfect album for the ADD generation, roaming freely between Hard Rock, Hip Hop, Swing, AltRock, Latin and Jazz. The ace rhythm section of Chris Lenehan and Andrew Laudeman provide a fluid yet sturdy base for Buckra's diverse, groovecentric style. Jacob Heintz has evolved into one of the best guitarists in the city, though he nobly shows off his talent by writing creative parts that best fit the songs and not simply whacking off. In Buckra, each member is an indispensable cog in the machine. But singer Dylan Speeg brings the band its strong personality, with his lyrical come-ons and catcalls painting him as a combination street-corner pimp/late-night piano-bar huckster. Vocally, Speeg is like a cross between The Cult's Ian Astbury and Sammy Davis Jr., turning on the Full Rock Power when appropriate, yet still capable of slinking into a velvet croon without so much as a flinch. Offstage, Speeg is one of the funniest people you'll ever meet; in the band context, that cleverness helps make him one of the best frontmen in the city as well. BY MIKE BREEN (CityBeat)