((The XYZ Affair)) Band Profile and Upcoming Los Angeles Concerts - Oh My Rockness

The path to happiness is as easy as X-Y-Z. Sometimes you need some good old fashioned power pop in your life to remind you that the sky can be sunny every now and then. Who needs angst when you've got The XYZ Affair? This boisterous Brooklyn band creates entirely catchy feel-good music that's perhaps played with a wink. They probably know their rousing verse-chorus-verses are a little over-the-top with all those falsettos and guitar solos, but they don't call it arena rock because it's meant to sound small.

These guys construct a self-aware homage to guilty pleasure pop. And the thing is, the songs they write are really good. When singer Alex Feder's tenor soars to reach these out-of-my-range melodies, you must tip your cap to the man. He pulls it off without sounding annoying or relying on the vibrato crutch (not an easy feat in the American Idol world we seem to be living in).

The XYZ Affair can be compared to Weezer meets Queen meets Ben Folds (but, you know, better).

Published March 12, 2010