If, like me, you let out an audible shriek of delight when you heard the Jesus Lizard was getting back together, then it's hard not to love the Pissed Jeans, a band that will inevitably be called the Jesus Lizard's "successors" for months to come. But if my personal taste for noise is not shared by most, allow me to explain why King of Jeans may be the most essential noise rock release of the past decade: rather than revive noise rock or rip it up and start from scratch, the Pissed Jeans fully understand what has made great the best noise rockers of any era: that noise rock is fueled by boredom and being a loser as much as it is by spite, that you need not sacrifice song structure for distortion, and that it really helps to have a sense of humor.

The best noise bands, from the Stooges to Black Flag to the Jesus Lizard, all understood the nuances of the genre, but that understanding was rare even in hardcore's heyday. As Suicidal Tendencies, and the Butthole Surfers proved, being funny can offset things from getting too inaccessible. As the Big Black and Mudhoney proved, it also helps if you're the rare loser who can write good songs. If you're able to do all three (c.f. Jesus Lizard's Goat), you're a god for life for a certain breed of music fan.

This being the jaded aughts, the Pissed Jeans started with a sense of humor, which is why 2007's Hope For Men was a laugh riot, even if it had only a handful of actual songs. With King of Jeans, the Pissed Jeans have become a full-fledged rock band with nary a band track to be found, including some ("False Jesii Part 2," "She is Science Fiction," "Lip Ring") that are among the best you'll hear all year. Of course, it's still full of yuks; the 7+ minute clunker "Spent" sounds like a winking nod to how embarrassing the Stooges' "We Will Fall" sounded even in 1969, let alone today.

But that wink ends up making the song better, and is reflective of the Pissed Jeans' (relative) maturity. The band is sincere enough to understand how devastating alienation and boredom can be, but also smart enough to know just how inherently masturbatory it is to bitch about it in song form—even if that's basically where all of rock 'n' roll comes from.

Unlike similar masterstrokes fromcontemporary noise rockers like Fucked Up or Titus Andronicus, there's no catharsis to be found on King of Jeans. Even in the band's best album to date, all the Pissed Jeans provide is an understanding to help you get on with your crappy day. It's a more honest and enlightened approach, even if it's rather bleak.

But King of Jeans also happens to be necessary. For authentic indie rock losers, the void left by the Jesus Lizard's breakup proved to be particularly agonizing. The more commercial "indie" rock got, the more it turned away from its noisy roots, in what essentially became a much lamer, drawn-out version of the dilemma Nirvana faced almost 20 years ago. The Pissed Jeans are bound to form a crisis in the indie world: those who still appreciate indie rock as a weird subculture will love the band. Those who think of the Flaming Lips as mainstream will be disoriented that the Pissed Jeans share the same platform. But that's exactly the wake up call indie rock needs: you can't be popular and like the Pissed Jeans. You can be popular while liking TV on the Radio and Urban Outfitter jeans. If the business no longer provides a clear dividing line between those who get it and those who don't, only the music can do so now. Let the next great rock schism begin.