Using critique as construction, like Sassy-fied Camille Paglias, both Kicking Giant and Huggy Bear offer up glimpses of the punk underground that were always available -- just rarely noted.

Within the indie community, racism is as covert as its suburban origins. From the overt swastika-wearing Circle Jerks during the '80s to a more institutional form that begs the question: "Why is everyone here white?" or sometimes, "What's that Asian kid doing here?" Punk as privilege is nothing new, but at least Huggy Bear and Kicking Giant have the guts to address the issue. Call it indie-guilt.

Despite their monikers, both bands' music and message aren't cute. Although the Bear once toyed with "Peanuts" samples and dealt mainly with grrrl politics, it relies on making an uncomfortable, claustrophobic sonic mess with its latest and last album Weaponry Listens to Love. Kicking Giant also drops any of its cute schtick for a more direct hit on its recently released album, Alien i.D.

For Huggy Bear, it's nothing too new. Since the band's inception to its demise late last year, its politics have always been punk and its punk always political. The group, not unlike Crass, was a regular Human Rights Watch building up its own queer nation and feminist enclave. On Weaponry Listens to Love, these "young irregulars" opt to dismantle their own community -- you know, the semester feminists and lesbians, and the liberal geeks who say things like "Some of my best friends are black."

On songs such as "Fuck Yr Heart" and "Local Arrogance," Huggy Bear uses its sexual politics to get at issues of race. Part S & M, part Kafka, strap you in and tie you up with taunt distorted lashings. Unlike previous singles such as "Her Jazz" and "Concrete Life" these truant tyrants base their sound less in simple hooks for more sprawling stuff. The album's murky clamor only makes the lyrics and singer Morbius' vocals clearer.

On "Erotic Bleeding," Morbius discusses intolerance: "Everybody knows a creep outside/Everybody knows a creep inside," and later, "And where I come from it isn't joked about/they don't joke about it/don't joke about it/so they lie about it . . . it is complex/it is everything inside." It's as passionate as Morbius' scratchy voice spitting and strutting all over Weaponry.

With the passion spent, the band is able to save a few lines for the liner notes: "As irregular young ant farmers we ache with lapsed superiority complexes. . . . We are glued to our niches." At least Morbius and Co. haven't bought the whole farm.

While Huggy Bear works its critique in the punk, Kicking Giant opts for a more pop format. Singer Tae Won Yu splits his time between lovey pop tunes and jagged, edgy songs for those that just don't get it. Ironically, the standout track on Alien i.D. is a song not written or sung by the band.

"The Town Idiot," performed by spoken-word artist Sue Fox, succeeds better than anything on the Huggy Bear LP at setting the indie scene. Warbling like a some uppity high school cheerleader into Dorothy Parker, Fox dispels all the punk rock paradoxes. Her town idiot has frizzy orange hair, laugh lines and flowered, flared skirt and is clairvoyant: "I see a freak boy/he ain't no female/he ain't no person of color/he surpasses all boundaries/to be a freak boy you must be white/then be quirky."

Fox deconstructs the community, ridding it of its self-righteousness and pat-on-the-back political beliefs. It's scathing and it's apt. If only punks could be more than just punks.