Fivespeed

Can you say “mainstream”? Seasoned Phoenix-based rock outfit Fivespeed has officially grown up with Morning Over Midnight, an album packed with alternacore radio hits destined to top sales charts and incite rabid fist-pounding and panty-wetting on a national level.

Fivespeed has in spades what mediocre nausea-inducing radio bands like Nickelback and Trapt lack — talent, taste, and, most important, balls. Morning Over Midnight delivers edgy rock (“Fair Trade”) and finds Fivespeed minting a heavy and melodic sound all its own. Old-schoolers who used to “see Fivespeed at Nita’s Hideaway, dude” might pooh-pooh the slick production and pair of string-laden ballads (“Blame It On You” and “Misery Loves Company”) — but only while their toes tap without approval.

With its stock set to soar like Arizona brethren Jimmy Eat World, catch Fivespeed now while you can; the next time you see the band will probably be through binoculars at an arena show.