It is a rare thing when a band that begins as, essentially, the side project of members of another band evolves beyond its origins and becomes a strong enough band to deserve recognition on its own merit. New Wet Kojak has accomplished this feat. Formed by Girls Against Boys' Scott McCloud and Johnny Temple (along with Nick Pellicciotto, Charles Bennington, and Geoff Turner), although they share a singer in McCloud, the two bands are so individual that each are pioneers in their own right. Whereas GvsB has allied itself with a sort of D.C.-flavord post-punk scene populated with the likes of Fugazi and Jawbox, New Wet Kojak picks up on McCloud's peripheral persona as a gritty lounge singer, and his tendency toward writing stream of consciousness beat poetry, and sets it to music that is an inescapabley catchy blend of jazz, rock, and techno. With Do Things, New Wet Kojak's third release, they seem to have perfected their attack, making their genre-blending style seem perfectly natural. McCloud's lyrics are characteristically hip, with songs like "Punxnotdead" and it's declaration that "Marilyn Manson is not a pussy/he's a rock god/with a hot bod," and "Do Things" accusations that "the future already happened man/you're the one with the problem." One of the album's more rocking numbers, "Sticky 2 Me"'s "do do do do do" chorus seems to be a self-referencial in-joke, echoing a line of GvsB's own "Go Be Delighted." Perhaps the strongest track, "Love Career" is driven by a hypnotically repetitive piano riff of only one or two notes and a sly bassline prowling in the foreground. The hipster schtick wears a bit thin with "Show Business" and McCloud's ramblings about "I have a machine to see/called eyes," but it is hardly enough to detract from the rest of the album's nearly flawless form. A nearly perfect collection of smoky rock, that is the highlight of the New Wet Kojak catalog thus far, including 2001's lacklustre No.4 EP.