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Who are they? A four-piece from the Silver Lake area of LA. Their debut album, Carnavas, got one of those fabulously sniffy reviews from the online taste police at Pitchfork. SSPU's starting point is the mid1990s fuzz-guitar angst-rock of Smashing Pumpkins and their ilk, and you need to be a fan of this genre to appreciate Carnavas. Purists will think, "Why do I need a pastiche?"; snobs simply damn the whole genre. I just like the way they so obviously love the music they grew up with and now make themselves. Squalls of guitar, impenetrable lyrics, violent crescendos, sudden hushes: all here, but there's an appealingly shoegazey side to SSPU, too (and, crucially, a complete absence of Billy Corgan-style histrionics).
When's the record out? The single, Well Thought Out Twinkles, is released on July 16 on Dangerbird/Sire; www.silversunpickups.com .