Constant Listener JIM TESTA Artie Shepherd has a lot to answer for. The affable, good-looking lead singer and guitarist of Error Type: 11 (the name comes from a common computer glitch) might not seem like much of a subversive at first glance. But here he is, his band the heir apparent to Quicksand's crown as lords of the New York hardcore scene, getting all soft 'n' squishy. "Amplified to Rock," ET11's new album on New York's Some Records, finds Shepherd bleeting about how much he needs his girlfriend, regretting his inability to communicate, and pining for a kiss— when by all rights he should be looking to lay the smackdown on some lug for disrespecting his posse or getting out of line in the mosh pit. I mean, what is hardcore coming to anyway when you can't count on it for a little gratuitous violence and mayhem?

Nothing in Shepherd's background suggests that he'd turn out to be such a wimp, such a betrayer to the cause. As a teenager, he cut his teeth in the two-fisted, testosterone-fueled Long Island band Mind Over Matter, laying down crunchy power riffs behind furious, adrenaline-laced break beats. His bandmates similarly come from good stock: Error Type: 11 lead guitarist Phil Hanratty used to front Clockwise, a clench-jawed hardcore unit to whom subtlety was even more a stranger than Mind Over Matter. Drummer Erik Matheu provided the propulsion for Bad Trip, one of the most energetic (if somewhat goofy) hardcore bands to emerge from the post-CBGB's NY hardcore scene of the early Nineties, while baby-faced bassist Adam Marino paid his adolescent dues in the metalcore group Saetia. After high school and Mind Over Matter's eventual dissolution, Shepherd wound up in World's Fastest Car, the post-hardcore supergroup featuring members of Quicksand and Civ that no one ever heard. After years of rehearsals, recording sessions, and tentative out-of-town tryouts, WFC fell apart before the band ever released a note of music to the public or

Error Type:11 Wednesday at Brownie's, 169 Avenue A, New York, with Align and Interpol. Show at 7 p.m. Admission is $7. (212) 420-8392 Next Saturday at Maxwell's, 1039 Washington St., Hoboken, with American Standard and John Mars. Show at 10 p.m. Admission is $6. 653-1703. played a single show in its hometown. Sick of hardcore and disillusioned with the punk scene, Shepherd started playing acoustic gigs in coffee shops, honing his songwriting and singing while waiting for the next chapter in his life to unfold. When Hanratty's band Clockwise broke up, he took the first step in that direction by asking Shepherd to try playing together. Matheu, Shepherd's roommate at the time, came aboard on drums and former Mind Over Matter bassist Scott Martin completed the lineup shortly thereafter. The band's feisty first demo caught the ears of the people at Some Records and the band was quickly signed. Adam Marino replaced Scott Martin on bass, and in short order, the band released a 7-inch, a debut CD,

and late last year, an EP on the Crank! Records label. And now comes "Amplified to Rock," a nine-song, hour-long delineation of Error Type: 11's existential dilemma — how do you prosper in the hardcore scene when the music you make has next to nothing to do with the rigid expectations of the genre? Why, you might ask, don't the members of Error Type: 11 simply shed their past and move on to an older, more appreciative audience? It all boils down to the economics of music. ET:11 needs the hardcore scene; it guarantees successful tours and fanzine interviews, sold-out local shows and a rabid record-buying audience that will pick up a CD just because it has the Some Records logo on its sleeve. Without the hardcore scene, Error Type.11 is just one more indie-rock band in a city glutted with them. So Error Type: 11 has chosen to align itself with the hardcore scene, often touring with national bands whose sound verges closer to metal than punk, hoping that its kinder, gentler variation on the typical tough-guy hardcore stance will be appreciated. So far, it's working. After all, it's not as if "Amplified to Rock" doesn't have its moments of rage. "I'm Alive" qualifies as a classic Angry Young Man song, with Shepherd

THE BAND Error Type: 11 includes singer-guitarist Artie Shepherd, right, and bassist Adam Marino.

defiantly shouting the lyric, "I alone know everything at 25 years old, acting out everything that comes out of my mouth." It has its big riffs and pounding drums, but the Stone Temple Pilots write big riffs too, as do the lads in Oasis. In fact, Shepherd has stated that he would love for Error Type: 11 to be the Oasis for today's hardcore kids, a band that can reconnect today's youth with the elegance and formalism of classic rock but in a thoroughly modern style. Through much of "Amplified to Rock," that's exactly what Shepherd shoots for, and more times than not, he hits his target. The new album is a vast improvement over the band's debut CD, which waffled uncomfortably between its desire to keep the hardcore kids' fists pumping while injecting the intricacy and emotional depth of indie rock icons like the Smiths. "Better Than the Superbowl" starts the album with some monster power chords and a supercharged chorus, with lyrics that challenge the expectations of the band's core audience. The song comes across as loud and raucous — something between the Foo Fighters and Bob

Mould's Sugar; it's not until Shepherd repeats the haunting chorus — "someone teach me how to be, while I'm underground" — with only the sound of his naked voice that the song's true agenda becomes apparent. The loudmouthed wise guy — a persona Shepherd often adopts on stage, incidentally — is revealed to be vulnerable and alone. "By the way, everyone should try singing a capella parts in front of large crowds," Shepherd adds in his witty liner notes to the track. "It's very humbling." The paradoxes and perils of relationships occupy many of these tracks, including the self- berating "Selective Communication" and the gushily romantic "Things That Make You Want to (Kiss Me)." Shepherd's not afraid to not only address his emotions, but also reveal that he's often not in control of them — that the real power all too often rests with the loved, not the lover. That's not the sort of lesson you're likely to learn listening to Blink 182 or Agnostic Front, but then, Error Type: 11 isn't your average hardcore band. That's one error that no one should have to make anymore.