This North Carolina band sure is pretty, albeit in a fanatical sort of way. Raleigh's The Love Language is a mostly fuzzy, sometimes synth-y, and always melodic pop band led by singer/songwriter/recorder/do-it-all dude, Stu McLamb. He later decided he wanted this to be a real band and not just a one-man-band, so he was joined by his brother Jordan, and five to seven others, depending on the day.

Glad that's over; now let's get down to business. So The Love Language's music has been compared to Guided by Voices, The Walkmen, Phil Spector and Sebadoh. Granted, all of these comparisons were found on their booking agent's page, so take that for what you will. But they definitely got the lo-fi meets retro thing right.

This seems to me like music made sometime several decades ago. But perhaps that's just because every time I hear a tambourine solo, I think The Beach Boys and The Byrds are up to their old tricks again. Again, this is super melodic stuff, but there are a whole lot of layers of noise and distortion going on too (that's the lo-fi part of it all), making The Love Language impossible to be easily classified as another sunshine-pop band like, I don't know, The Shins or something. This is more like enthusiastic mud-pop. The energy of this band just jumps out of the jewel case. (PS. My love language is that I love receiving gifts. It's true! I took a test in a book.)

BUY TICKETS TO SEE THE LOVE LANGUAGE AT SCHUBAS (EARLY SHOW)!

BUY TICKETS TO SEE THE LOVE LANGUAGE AT SCHUBAS (LATE SHOW)!

The Love Language plays two shows at Schubas, on Saturday, September 26th