Critic’s Choice

San Diegos Pinback, Friday, October 13, at the 15th Street Tavern with Acrobat Down and Oer the Ramparts, combines the considerable talents of Armistead Burwell Smith IV (aka Zach), who served as the heart of Three Mile Pilot, and Robert Rulon Crow Junior. Yet unlike the heavier sounds that emanated from the bass-driven Three Mile Pilot, Pinback creates a kind of understated, pensive pop that is, for the most part, electronically generated. The complex arrangements and sophisticated song structures on Pinbacks self-titled debut reveal a depth of skill that was only hinted at in 3MPs later work. Pinbacks continued exploration of a different kind of electronica is establishing it as a brave, and important, indie act.