"As much as it is going to go away from rock, it becomes the rock." The first time I heard Maher Shalal Hash Baz I immediately liked them: A Japanese styling of indie pop that combined the best of K-Records songwriting with the improvisational noise of groups like Smegma or No Neck Blues Band—as if the Velvet Underground were chopped and screwed live by an orchestra of naivist musicians. Maher Sha