Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, 'Howl' (RCA)
Jimmy Eat World, 'Futures' (Interscope)
There are basically two ways to handle sudden success: Take it as a mandate to chase your muse, doin' it for art and adventure, or spend the rest of your days obliging folks who want to hear you play your first hit single all night long.
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Noise Live: The Polyphonic Spree
The Polyphonic Spree
Lakewood Theater
Dallas
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Phantom Planet, 'Phantom Planet' (Epic/Daylight)
Serving as the opening act for Fox’s The O.C. isn’t a bad gig -- beats rocking the Peach Pit with Brandon, Dylan, and the gang. But for Los Angeles power-pop quintet Phantom Planet, the show’s use of “California” (a track from their 2002 album, The Guest) as its theme song is a mixed blessing.
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The Shins, 'Chutes Too Narrow' (Sub Pop)
When the Shins’ 2001 debut, Oh, Inverted World, catapulted the Albuquerque, New Mexico-based indie-rock Anglophiles to the top of the middle, not everybody boarded the bandwagon.
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My Morning Jacket, 'It Still Moves' (ATO/RCA)
Think of It Still Moves--the third album by Kentucky’s My Morning Jacket and their first for Dave Matthews’ ATO Records--as a Tennessee Williams play revamped as Southern-rock opera, all gothic romance and alcoholic ardor.


