What, was Spray Davies already taken? On their second record, this amiable Atlanta quartet borrow the keenly stacked harmonies and unpolished yet precise pop licks of the Beatles' Cavern Club days, but their newfound psychedelic, meandering impulses nudge them closer to the Kinks and Yardbirds than to the Fabs; the viola cries and distended tango pulse of Esmarelda may have fit on Village Green Preservation Society. Gringo's very modern garage-rock bedrock supports the experimentalism well, and hopefully the band will follow their colorful curiosity beyond these forebears.

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• Photos: Random Notes

“The Pretender”

This song wasn't part of the planned track listing for 2007's Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, and was put together in a day. "It happened after we recorded a lot of stuff," said Dave Grohl. Yet it ended up as the album opener and the lead single. Grohl called it "a stomping Foo Fighters uptempo song with a little bit of Chuck Berry in it." The singer hinted at the lyrics' political overtones: "Everyone's been f---ed over before and I think a lot of people feel f---ed over right now and they're not getting what they were promised."