Let me step back to the early 90’s in my home area of South Wales. As I whittled my carefree youth away, drinking in ever bar and dive within a 50 mile radius, I saw a strange phenomenon. Scores of bands that for many, many years had played heavy metal to rabid fans, were finally facing up to the fact metal had gone the way of betamax in terms of popularity. So with brave faces, and without their skintight jeans, they attempted to jump aboard the indie music train, nearly all fell off horribly. Their salvation was in sight though, as grunge exploded, they went back to playing the same old woeful heavy metal and pretended they actually knew where Seattle was.

So what has this got to do with a band from the New Hampshire/Massachusetts area, as we head into the new millenium you ask? Well this self-titled, self-released debut album sounds to me like that tiny few, those couple of bands that moved from heavy rock into indie pop with success. Whether there is a history of playing "hair" rock in their past I do not know, but they certainly bring a strong sense of that in their use of guitar, production and vocals.

First I give my absolute admiration to any band that can produce such a professional album and get it out there for the fans, without the help of even a minor label. Also both Brad Page and Scot Gibbs are accomplished guitarists, songwriters and vocalists. They share the duties on different tracks, kind of like The Beatles. Unlike Lennon and McCartney though their songs are pretty interchangeable. They obviously think alike, which may make for a peaceful band, but a little bit more contrast between their songs would have helped. That said it also creates an album that flows smoothly through its thirteen tracks.

Musically they are pretty straightforward guitar rock-pop. Clean, hard riffs accompany songs about love and life. It is a formula that fits them like an old pair of sneakers. They also name the albums best track after The Human Torch of Marvel fame, which is fine with me. It is a great little tune, where they manage to pull their metaphor "been burned by love so many times he feels like a human torch" around tight percussion, interesting harmony and blistering guitar work. A real stand out track. They even manage to pull a guitar solo past me without criticism, that is praise indeed.

Elsewhere there are other equally solid tracks such as "The Perfect Girl" and "The Way We Live". A couple of tracks could have easily have been ditched, leaving a shorter stronger album, but I am not going to get overly critical, if you are looking for some new, old music, if you know what I mean, then Ten Story Love may be just what you are looking for. The album is available for a miserly $10 at www.cdbaby.com, where you can also sample before you buy.

Overall a solid entertaining debut from a band with a lot of promise, if they want my advise, which I doubt, they should attempt to concentrate the music a little more on their follow up, pull the guitar solos back a notch, and go for a more polished production. No matter what I would recommend at least checking out their music to anyone with a love of guitar pop.

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