Prefiguring both Lois Maffeo and the Breeders, Columbus, Ohio's Scrawl wedded Sue Harshe and Carolyn O'Leary's unsteady beats to Marcy Mays' urgent tales of late-night desperation. The sparse, propulsive songs on their 1987 debut bear out the mindset implied by their titles: "Sad," "Loser," "Standing Around," "Gutterball." But they're never gloomy, channeling Mays' frustrations into cathartic demands like the refrain of "Slut": "Where's my gratification?" The songs, and their singer, sound as if they could fall apart at any moment. But they hold defiantly together, as the band did for another 12 years, releasing half a dozen albums as good or better before drifting apart.