Secret Life of Painters

This melodic indie rock quartet sounds a bit like another local band, radio rulers Jimmy Eat World, whom SLP once joined on a Midwest tour that included a gig in a barn. The A-side, "Hold Your Flashlight," is a chugging, hard-edged pop number full of images of summer camp, canary traps, and cemeteries, and the underlying message seems to be about either love or molestation. The B-side, "Magnets & Energy," is a tight rock ballad about boozing, with dirge-like guitar solos and lines like "Sharing magnets and energy/Sloppy drunk, sloppy drunk are we." Hints of the band's big influences -- mainly Guided By Voices and early R.E.M. -- are apparent, but overall, SLP sounds like a band that's got its own shit together. The two tracks on this 7-inch are from the band's upcoming full-length, Careers in Poverty, and incidentally, our copy is hand-numbered #272/300.