Marble Valley: Sauckiehall Street

If you're a member of an acclaimed band like, say, Pavement, you can generate commercial interest by releasing recordings of your cats fighting. Such are the benefits of limited clout. Marble Valley does have a member of Pavement in its ranks (drummer Steve West, who is prominently featured and named on the cover), and consequently, its new album will sell more copies than it would otherwise. Whether it should or not is the big question here: Sauckiehall Street builds a bridge between Pavement and the pre-1988 Residents, meaning that it contains whacked-out pop that's periodically a bit unnerving in its weirdness; sometimes annoying in its precocious low-fi indieness; and mostly listenable. The problem is that it's neither poppy enough nor weird enough to be especially memorable. Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 is another bridge between Pavement and The Residents, and it accomplishes all of the same good things Marble Valley does, while avoiding the pitfalls. The band is agreeable, but the sound needs some tweaking before it can be heartily recommended.