There's this old saying that I'm making up right now: "Nobody wants to go on after the dead guy."

On a related note, Seattle bands have nervously been shuffling away from a certain corpse for a few years and now they've discovered pop. The Kent 3 is one of Seattle's better pop bands, and the three piece's debut Peasant Musik is an amiable, just- scruffy- enough affair that's not too loud, not too soft, and goes great with a handjob and a glass of champagne. Or, in my world, beating off into a sock. Hey, a guy's gotta keep tempo with something.

The band are in peak form when they incorporate a 60's vibe (a la the Yardbirds) and fugue it in with their K Records aesthetic. Granted, they're no Beat Happening, but on moments like "Winter," with its crazy organ squalls, they're the closest we'll get to a replacement.

Peasant Musik isn't completely cohesive, but it does have its moments. The laidback "The Bells of Saint Lazaro" ambles on down the trail, setting up camp with a harmonica and a sleeping bag while Slim gets low on the twang. And they've got a definite hands-down winner in "DJ Knew," a bouncy little number lamenting the sorry state of radio as we know it. (Who can argue with that?) All told, the record won't change your life, but it sure beats being sodomized by Joe Cocker. That might sound like faint praise, but you probably haven't heard Cocker's latest album.

-Jason Josephes