Thanks to these guys my wife just may kill me.

I don't know about you all, but sometimes there are those songs that you hear and they just stick in your head. Now I don't mean things like commercial jingles, those are written with the intent of being tattooed into your brain, and I suppose a musician is going to try and do the same thing to a certain extent...oh hell. I can't get the song 12 Steps out of my head.

Unlike most human beings, I obsess over particular songs. I will listen to them over and over. Pick them over and oddly in most cases never get tired of them. The unfortunate byproduct of this is that I start humming, whistling or air guitaring to them at random moments all through the day. Maybe I'm not the only one out there that does this, but my wife, coworkers and various other people in my life on a regular basis have to live with a certain level of tolerance for the fact that I have no idea what I am doing and will most definitely never stop.

Tango Alpha Tango is a new Portland act that seems to be coming on strong, netting performances at the Doug Fir with another local great band, King Black Acid and with another favorite of mine, Another Cynthia at Berbati's in the last month.

Now that I've had a chance to hear this album over a good number of times, I've grown to appreciate it as a whole. It covers all the bases as far as I'm concerned. Good catchy tunes with downright amazing musicianship. Nathan Trueb has a voice that can clearly be identified as his own. I don't get the sense that he is trying to mimic anyone else. His guitar playing is exemplary. I actually just got done re-listening to the album listening primarily to his technique and it is clear that he is an artist capable of playing for any occasion, and now that I have picked over their blog on Myspace, I see that he actually teaches guitar at a shop out in Oregon City.

The rest of th band puts up one hell of a performance as well. Aaron puts up a great performance on the synth and piano, Mirabai provides a tight well committed base line (seriously, listen for it, it'll impress you) and Walker...well Walker immediately gets huge bonus points for having a rock star name, but beyond that his drumming is inspired.

I guess what I am getting at here is that this is a well matured act, they play well, seem passionate about their music and it comes across in their recordings.

My over all points of complement? These guys don't just sound like every other indie pop band out there. There's a hint of something in their music that reminds me of a few acts from the nineties, but they aren't playing to that sound, they are definitely new. Their songs are catchy and will act like auditory super glue on your brain, and a couple of the songs from this album may find their way onto the soundtrack of the movie of my life. (Someone is working on that right?)

While you're at it. Check out this video of Alpha Tango Alpha playing Number One Rival at the Doug Fir.

Over all I give these home grown heroes 5 Bacon Maple bars, and wish that I could take guitar lessons from Nathan.