Every week, I receive several friend requests on MySpace. About 70% of them are from siphylitic spambots, masquerading as hot, lonely, Russian jailbait. Another 20% are from bands I've never heard of, who live in cities I've never heard of, and make music I've never heard of. The final 10% come from bands that live right here in Colorado. And a shocking percentage of these are completely new to me.

After accepting the friend request, I clicked over to the Missing Dufrenes' profile and flicked the music player on, streaming six tracks of upbeat, melodic rock-and-roll. While Jonathan Snyder's vocal melodies are occasionally a little too familiar, there's a great pop sensibility at work here, balanced by a compulsion to make a lot of good ol' rock noise. To be honest, I'm excited about this group, and I can already hear many of you kind readers saying, in your inimitable way, "Well, duh!"

According to the very same MySpace page, Missing Dufrenes is playing a Bush farewell party at the hi-dive on January 20th, and then releasing a full-length CD at the Larimer Lounge on March 6th. I'll be there. --Eryc Eyl