2/21/2013

Either toned-down Iggy, next-gen emo, or Collective Soul redux, depending on how you look at it. Led up by former Underoath drummer Aaron Gillespie, these Floridians hit No. 39 on the Billboard Top 200 with 2009’s Monster Monster, written and performed entirely by Gillespie, whose yell recalls Chris Cornell to some extent, a good match for his mildly punkish blues-rawk fetish. “I Won’t Let Go” has its Hoobastank side, whether or not it’s drowned out some by the jagged guitars, and “So What” is even more geeky. But I digress; all the songs, particularly the first few, have an open-hearted, raw energy uncommon to the punk-pop bands they’ll inevitably be compared to. “Love Is Coming Down” is part Stones and part Goo Goo Dolls, but “Ghost” is the one that’s really cool, a few no-wave sounds soldered onto ’70s Foghat-style blues — there’s no doubt in my mind I’ll hear that one in a movie theater lobby or something and won’t be able to remember who the band is for the life of me. A — Eric W. Saeger