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July 13-19, 2006

Music : Picks

Smash Palace

rock/pop


With a twisting, twisted history that goes back 20 years, the infectious Smash Palace is in demand again for its crunchy, Brit-influenced guitar sound. "I guess it's best termed power pop. It's got all of the classic pop songwriting elements — good hooks and catchy lyrics — but it's still rock," figures Steve Butler, who founded the band with his still-recording-but-no-longer-touring older sib, Brian. (The younger brother produced the most recent albums by Mary Lee's Corvette and this show's opener, Sara O'Brien.) Smash Palace is crossing the river from Jersey to plug its fifth album, Best of 99-06 (Zip Records), a collection of just that, plus a few new tunes thrown in for good measure. They're no slouches onstage either; the band was recently named one of the top 10 best live bands out of 140 that took part in at the recent International Pop Overthrow in Liverpool. Says Steve: "We can rock out, no doubt about it."

Sat., July 15, 10:30 p.m., $10, Tin Angel, 20 S. Second St., 215-928-0770, www.tinangel.com.

—Nicole Pensiero

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