In a message dated 2/6/2004 11:10:15 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
audities-owner@smoe.org writes:
<<Then The Format hit the stage - they were fucking GREAT! Three guitars (or
two guitars and a piano, depending on the song) bass and drums...great
songs...good harmonies (led by a VERY strong lead singer)...hooks, melodies,
POWER POP! Good reaction from the crowd and a complete surprise to me after
the first two bands. I was smiling my ass off and wondered why I had not
heard of them before (although one of their songs must be on a TV show or
local college radio - "The First Single" - I recognized it immediately. >>


"INTERVENTIONS AND LULLABIES", the debut from The Format, is actually one of 
our current store favorites. It sounds a bit like a more straightforward 
Shins, or a more jangly Jimmy Eat World (they were "discovered" by Jim Adkins of 
JEW), apt comparisons since they are from the southwest like the other two. It's 
not perfect--some of the ballads don't develop hooks--but for the most part 
it's a pretty fantastic little pop record. "The First Single (You Know Me)" has 
gotten some limited radio airplay and has also been used as ambient music in 
lots of TV shows... WEA has not been promoting this band AT ALL, but they have 
managed to do that.

Definitely worth checking out for fans of that type of thing--really they 
have more in common with jangle-pop than with the punk-pop audience they seem to 
have cultivated. --Jason