American Standard
The term "bubblegrunge" was coined to describe stuff like the Toadies, Collective Soul, and Seven Mary Three. It's not a complimentary term, and I was the one who coined it in the first place, so you can tell what direction we're going here. Then again, Seven Mary Three have a weird sort of Southern-rock authenticity to their Pearl Jam bluster (they're from Florida), which suggests they might have even more right to the sound than a dilettante like Eddie Vedder. By "Southern rock," though, I don't mean the Allmans or Skynyrd so much as Molly Hatchet. They should be .38 Special instead: a swamp-boogie hat act that throws on some pop hooks and sucks back the Yankee dollars. The hit here is cumbersome. Er, that is, the hit here is "Cumbersome."--Gavin McNett