The truth, as it happens, is that I'm fucked. I'm four beers into a serious bender somewhere roughly six miles over Saskatchewan and the writer's block shows no sign of breaking. Now admittedly, I don't know just where Saskatchewan is, but right now it seems like there is a good enough chance that it's between where I came from (Chicago) and where I'm headed (Iceland), so let's go with it. I'm two days late on an editor that has always given me the benefit of the doubt, and as they say in the business...that shit ain't cool.

The downside to this particular set of circumstances is that it is patently, unimpeachably, undeniably my fault. No late interview, no broken tape recorder, no death in the family...at least that I've been told about. As I believe I mentioned once before...I'm fucked.

The thing is...this didn't happen because I procrastinated, although I most certainly did. At the heart of the problem lies a simple inescapable truth: I'm having a hard time coming up with something interesting to write about The Shout Out Louds.

It's not that they're a bad band...they're not. The Swedish pop practitioners are actually pretty good at their craft. The fact that said craft is a rather simple one isn't their fault, and I'm not inclined to hold it against them. In the meantime, though, it's tough to make them seem interesting.

Ted Malmos didn't make my job any easier. Speaking with the bass player from his home in Stockholm, I found him to be polite, intelligent, humble and well spoken. In other words, he was exactly what a rock and roller shouldn't be. Ego-filled hubristic drivel tends to make for a good article, and Malmos wasn't selling. If the band has a tendency toward humility, however, it doesn't show in the bold advances that have punctuated their short career. Having already tallied opening slots for indie heavyweights such as The Magic Numbers, The Futureheads, and The Secret Machines, they were also picked up by the decidedly non-indie Capital Records. As Malmos explains, "When we met them they really seemed to understand what we wanted to do...they gave us a lot of freedom." Part of that freedom involves letting Malmos, a former film student, direct all of the band's videos.

The band's sound is clearly descendent of the garage school of American rock. Whether you consider it "influenced by" or "derivative of" is probably going to depend on whether or not you are on board with the infectious choruses displayed on their debut, Howl Howl Gaff Gaff. The earnest-o-meter is often solidly in the red, but there is no denying that the band can write a good pop song. Even those with a well-worn critical sneer will likely admit that "Very Loud" is a monster single.

Much of the material for the record is from older EPs the band had put out in self-release, so it should be interesting to see what direction the group heads in. The Shout Out Louds expect to be back in the studio early next year. "We have written quite a lot already and now we're starting to figure out what we're going to do with it all," said Malmos.

In the end, pop music may not always need to be interesting to be good. It's enough sometimes to add a bit of talent to a proven formula and hope people sing along. I don't know where The Shout Out Louds will be in five years, but tonight it has made me forget the fact that I'm streaking across the sky in a 20-year-old aluminum tube. Of course it could be the beer and the sleeping pills, but I can't be sure, so let's go with it.

The Shout Out Louds :: Double Door :: November 9.