Care Bears on Fire

Phil Knott

I Stole Your Animal
Beautiful Records, $12.

With names like Toxic Muffin and Tiny Masters of Today, the most buzzed-about groups in New York’s kid-rock scene (which some have dubbed “kidcore”) have already nailed the first requirement of rock & roll immortality: cool nomenclature. This month, Brooklyn-based trio Care Bears on Fire one-up their preteen peers by taking that crucial next step and releasing a full-length album, I Stole Your Animal.

In the spirit of punk’s hard-edged, anti-Establishment sound, the majority of Animal’s tunes grind along in loud, cranking garage-band fashion. Lead singer Sophie Kasakove plays guitar while drummer (and best friend since kindergarten) Isadora “Izzy” Schappell-Spillman mercilessly hammers out the beat and Lucio Westmoreland fingers muscular bass riffs on songs like “Five-Minute Boyfriend” and “Met You on MySpace”—titles clearly geared toward boundary-testing tweens. “Jack Brown,” with its bluesy structure and slightly gothic mood, gives proof of the Bears’ musical skills. And tracks such as the dark and poignant “Shadow Girl” and the soft, sweet “Watchdog” show that the band can do more than just play loud and fast.

Hearing 11-year-old Sophie detailing a Behind the Music–style fable on “Victim of Rock & Roll” will tickle parents: “She’s in a rock band / they always fight… They’re on tour now, stuck in a van / they better make it because she knows this is her last chance.” But kids on the we-know-everything path to teenhood will likely gobble it up like candy, along with the rest of this album.