Pungent Indie Rock

Silversun Pickups -- Well Thought Out Twinkles (3.2mb mp3 from the band's label)

This band must get sick of being compared to other bands in the modern rock canon, but I do mean it as a serious compliment when I say that they remind me of earlier Smashing Pumpkins with occasional nods to the Pixies. Not in a copycat way, but with good solid influences and their own twist on them.

Things get started here with a chunky, almost bluesy groove that downshifts into the verse, then returns with a sort of classic-rock vengeance later on. I didn't really warm up to the song until I had heard the excellent break at the half-way point a few times -- such a thick, tight sound with a chugging bass line, a spacey keyboard floating along behind, and then growing intensity and distortion as things get rolling again to finish things up. This is fantastic rock, and I can only imagine how amazing they'd be in concert.