Dex Romweber has got to be the last of the great American singers. The way he shifts between honeyed croon to snotty snarl --- the very goalposts of rock 'n' roll --- is unequalled. Romweber, with his old Sears-made Silvertone, has been the king of stripped-down, straight-off-the-45 sound for more than 20 years, starting with the utterly frantic, utterly gone Flat Duo Jets. Now as a duo with his sister Sara (Let's Active, Snatches Of Pink), Romweber uses his band's simplicity to build "Ruins Of Berlin," an extraordinary album stuffed with a stunning array of guest musicians like Exene Cervenka, Cat Power, Rick Miller, Neko Case, and Kelly Hogan. There are shades of dark romance amidst the primal wail. It's spooky and it swings big time. Dex Romweber is cooler than Elvis.