Betwixt are not completely without artsy-fartsy pretensions, but nothing like that overshadows their undeniable rock and pop sensibilities. I can remember when 4AD started sending Pixies and Throwing Muses albums to my college radio station in Boston back in the late eighties. Those bands were from Boston, but I'd never heard of them until those records came in the mail. I don't think either band played a single show as an unsigned local band. Betwixt also come from Boston, they are also doing strange and wonderful things with the pop/rock aesthetic, but for some reason 4AD hasn't snatched them up yet. The Salty Tang is their second album on the small Boston label Archenemy.

Not many people outside Boston have heard this band yet, but the people who came to see them here in Madison after a favorable write-up in The Onion were pretty damn enthusiastic. Vocalist Leah Callahan and drummer Dave Nelson used to be in a band called Turkish Delight. I know them only by reputation, but every early nineties college radio DJ that's ever described them to me has raved. I think I'll try to find that band's CDs before Betwixt becomes the next big thing and the eBay speculators descend with a vengeance. - JDS