Did I ever mention that I'm from Minneapolis? Well, I am. A few months back, I relocated my ass to Chicago in hopes of living a big city kinda life and having the option to check out a cool show on any given night of the week. Tonight, on the recommendation of my pal, the lovable Karen Kopacz, I headed down to the Double Door to check out Minneapolis residents the Love-Cars.

We arrived with our newly discovered comp tickets firmly in hand just as the opening act, Melochrome, were getting started. They were decent enough-- definitely shoegazer-influenced, kinda drony. My ol' chum Brent DiCrescenzo entertained me with his critique of the new "Star Wars" movie, which he (and nearly everyone else) pretty much panned.

After Melochrome left the stage, we had the sneaking suspicion that things were about to get heavy. Three hulking guys with beards took the stage while we prepared for the worst. But when they started playing, it was something slightly different that we'd expected. Sure, it was noisy, but... it was pop. In a horrible kind of way. We abandoned them for the pool tables, and later discovered they called themselves Sweater Girl.

Scenario: Band three of four, Starless, has just started their set. We'd been hanging around for more than two hours, survived the horrendous sounds of Sweater Girl, played three games of pool (which I sucked at), and were generally bored. In a moment of antsiness, we scrammed.

As I write this, the Love-Cars are midway through their set, which is all well and good. In the meantime, I'm listening to their CD. And judging from the sound of it, we missed a pretty good show. Chump Lessons is 40 minutes of the perfect kind of pop. The first time you hear these songs, you recognize that they're good songs, but they don't jump out and grab you-- they just co-exist with you peacefully. The second time you listen to the disc, you recognize the songs and say, "Hey, these are good songs." See what I mean? It's not grating, catchy pop that'll get stuck in your head for days on end (like that fucking Cher song that I secretly love, or "Dancing Queen"), but you can really get into it.

Chump Lessons opens with "Somerset," a song that, for the first 20 seconds, seems irritatingly "alternative" (in that "Theme from 'Friends'" kind of way). But when the chorus kicks in, it becomes obvious that these guys owe far more of their sound to the Wrens than the Gin Blossoms. "Hand Over That Rule Book" follows it up with an excellent slab of quiet summer night rock. "Lucky You" is the first love song ever to cop a James Brown lyric ("Jump back and kiss myself")... man, these are all great tracks. Or maybe it's just that they seem awesome compared to Sweater Girl. Nah.

-Ryan Schreiber