Sonic Notes author and man-about-the-town Kasey Briggs is off this week. If you need him, he’ll be in his gallery room polishing his collection of marble busts.
    In the meantime, he asked me, a celebrated waxer of all things trivial, to pen his column which - not so coincidentally - is about his band The Phantom Limbs.
    With nearly five years of experience, the local boys haven’t slowed a bit, playing constant gigs locally (check out their monthly gigs at Matteo’s Salsa Loco, the 28th Street Pit and Pub, and the Pour House, just to name a few) and on the road while putting out a new record about every 14 months.
    “We may not be the most talented act in town, and we’re certainly not the classiest, but dang on if we ain’t prolific,” says guitar player and Berlin born Ryan Abbott.
    Abbott, bass player Kasey Briggs (hmm, I’m now realizing why Master Briggs asked me to fill in this week), and drummer Randolph Showell have completed their third EP, which completes the trilogy of EPs they’ve been working on since the band’s inception. The trio officially released the new disc, entitled “Episode 3: The Return of the Dead Guy,” earlier this month to coincide with their appearance at Eastport A’ Rockin’, an Annapolis original music festival. Their set went over swimmingly I’m told.
    The new disc, like their first two installments “Episode 1: Night of the Living Surf” and “Episode 2: Aberzombie and Flesh,” is available now on iTunes, Amazon, CD Baby, and “from the back of unmarked white vans bearing the Limb’s secret symbol,” says Abbott.
    But the boys wanted to throw a party and release their latest the right way, by throwing a massive party at a tiny tavern by the sea located on Ocean City’s boardwalk at 16th street. If you don’t know the place, then chances are you ain’t invited.
    Kasey gave me a copy of the new record, which I can confirm is as weird, if not weirder, and as sweet, if not sweeter, than its predecessors.
    If you’re unfamiliar with the band, I suggest downloading their records and catching one of their shows, but this column could quickly swell to multiple pages if I start describing their sound.
    “We like to say we’re Ocean City’s only original surf punk band,” Kasey says, “but saying that constricts what we really are: a band that plays whatever we feel like playing.”
    Whatever they were feeling when they wrote Turtles, the third track on Ep. 3, I’d like to bottle and sell it.
    Abbott says he maestros the band’s studio work, leading Kasey and Showell through unpredictable vamps that become layered tapestries after he “adds gooey digital goodness” to the tracks in post production, but Showell and Kasey will stop your heart - and rattle your ears - at their live shows, making up “the most powerful rhythm section in a band that doesn’t take themselves so seriously in the history of the universe.” Whatever that means.
    Having seen the fellas in action, I can tell you that Abbott’s guitar playing is understated, Kasey’s bass is solid and booming, and Showell’s drumming is beautifully mean. But perhaps their most endearing trait is their conscience.
    “A lot of bands act like people owe them something,” says Showell. “Last I checked, I didn’t have a hundred people knocking on my door asking us to play a rock show. We want to work for that love, and if they come they come, and if they don’t, we play our instruments and smile. Just like we did yesterday and like we’ll do tomorrow. We love each other, and that shows.”
    So if you support local music, make sure to check out the Limbs’ release party this Saturday. Disappointment is highly unlikely.
    Fear not, gentle reader, Kasey will return next week after he puts the finishing touches on his California closets, which he plans to stock with nothing but pink terry cloth robes and out-of-print windsocks.