Oh My Rockness

Well, they certainly got the punctuation down. And Brooklyn's pow wow! have the point (with lower-case action, no less!) and the lo-fi guitar/synth pop goodness that just might capture them some of that elusive buzz.

This band is led by Edward and Jeff Nazareno (and two other dudes) and it's got a whole laid-back sunny surf vibe going on (these free-flowing keys sound just like real waves). But not in that over-produced sunny surf vibe way (would that be, like, Sugar Ray?). This is more muddled and messy and pretty much a whole lot better than Mark McGrath.

Apparently some people (the band, among others) compare pow wow! to The Smiths. And let me just say, I don't hear that similarity AT ALL. I hear a happier Velvet Underground maybe, perhaps a little bit of Abe Vigoda. But Morrissey, not so much. pow wow! could easily be the soundtrack to Endless Summer III.