A good band name always gives the potential listener some idea what sort of music to expect. (Bad band names are ones that mess with those expectations: a certain artsy-jangly guitar pop band of the early ’90s would have been much more successful had they not been called , which sounds like the name of a scabrous hardcore act.) Chicago-based pop-punk band the Methadones is an excellent case in point: methadone — not to be confused with methamphetamine, aka crystal meth — being the drug prescribed to recovering heroin addicts who are attempting to get clean through a rehab-type regimen, the listener immediately expects world-weary, sadder but wiser punk rock, perhaps with a rootsy edge, not unlike the best of  or . The Methadones deliver in full on that promise, but also add a bubblegummy power pop side to their music that makes them equally attractive to fans of the post- cadres of mall punk bands.

Vortis is an ultra-concentrated, old-school explosion of second wave punk rock ruckus. Their sub-two minute songs epitomize Chicago punk rock and feature all of the hooks with with none of the frills.

If playing the sub-sub-genre game, this Chicago three-piece belongs in the punk-before-industrialization section next to bands like Naked Raygun, Dwarves, and Hüsker Dü. This trio requires no coasts for their wave of punk rock, only those big throaty guitars and throat-shredding vocals with pointed messages anxiously crafted for the latest round of geopolitical oblivion.