Flee the Seen

Gender-bending has been a rock & roll trademark for years — and continues to be one, especially in today's guy-liner drenched Warped Tour market. But Kansas City's Flee the Seen is somehow doing it backward: The quintet's vocalist, Kim Anderson, is an actual girl, not just a boy that sounds like one. Her powerful pipes float comfortably above tunes that are too hard-edged to be pop-punk, but too polished to bear the "core" suffix. Legitimacy is hard to come by in the mainstream punk world Flee The Seen lives in — and while they don't stray too far from the post-millenial, post-At the Drive-In, post-Thursday sung verse/screamed chorus formula, Anderson's vocals strangely validate the band's heart-sleeved nature.