This indie- rock superstar thing is really getting out of hand. Pullman is yet another side project featuring members of bands you already know and love: Curtis Harvey (Rex), Chris Brokaw (Come, Codeine), Doug McCombs (Tortoise, Eleventh Dream Day, the For Carnation), Bundy K. Brown (Directions, Tortoise, producer) and David Pajo (Aerial M, Slint, Tortoise, sometime Palace/ Will Oldham contributor). The idea this time around is that the boys have decided to go entirely acoustic, and, as is be expected, the results are largely satisfying.

Weaving together jigsaw- puzzle acoustic guitar, bass, and mandolin, Pullman creates lovely, Sunday- morning- coffee soundscapes that would make them a worthy addition to any highbrow easy- listening music library. Sounds of fingers sliding across strings and the odd foot- tapping can be heard throughout the record. Songs like "To Hold Down a Shadow," "Gravenhurst," "In a Box, Under the Bed," "Tall Grass" and "Two Parts Water" float on their breezy rustic cottage- country pretentions. Turnstyles and Junkpiles rarely strays from this winning formula, with the exception of "Lyasnya," a slowed- down klezmer tune which serves as a nice middle point.

One can only stand in jealous admiration of these musicians. Good work, boys.

-Samir Khan