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  • Go! 3/7-3/9
    06:00PM 03/07/08
  • R.E.M. Accelerate: An Advance Review and Song-by-Song Analysis of the Band's New Album
    04:06AM 03/08/08
  • Your Weekly St. Louis Food Blog Digest
    03:45PM 03/07/08
  • This Is Hawkwind -- Do Not Panic
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Recent Articles
Related Articles

Recent Articles By Julie Seabaugh

  • Scary Kids Scaring Kids
    7 p.m. Monday, January 28. Creepy Crawl, 3524 Washington Boulevard.
  • The Starting Line
    10 a.m. Sunday, September 30. Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, 14141 Riverport Drive, Maryland Heights
  • The Used
    8 p.m. Monday, September 17. Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard.
  • The Ataris
    6 p.m. Friday, September 7. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue.
  • Counting Crows / Collective Soul
    6:30 p.m., Tuesday, August 7. GCS Ballpark, 2301 Grizzlie Bear Boulevard, Sauget, Illinois.

National Features

  • Houston Press
    "It Was Like an Armageddon Movie"

    For days after Hurricane Rita, a Texas prison was hell on earth.

    By Chris Vogel
  • SF Weekly
    The Candidate

    Our columnist knows Ralph Nader's running mate all too well.

    By Matt Smith
  • The Pitch
    How Not To Be a Rap Star

    First of all, lay off the Ecstasy.

    By Nadia Pflaum
  • Village Voice
    Project Runaway

    What becomes a gossip columnist most?

    By Michael Musto

The Format (a.k.a. Nate Ruess and Sam Means) is as jaded about the music industry as they come. After releasing 2003's Interventions and Lullabies and scoring a minor hit with the snappy, über-catchy "The First Single," the duo's label was folded into Atlantic Records — which ultimately dropped the band over "creative differences." With Dog Problems, released on their own Vanity Label imprint, Means and Ruess respond via the alt-country stomper, "The Compromise": "Find a partner and grab a pen/Don't you dare ask questions, just sign on the dotted line." Problems isn't all music-biz nose-thumbing, however; the album was also fueled by an intense breakup of the romantic sort. But instead of treading clichéd ground, Ruess employs metaphors far more convincing than his peers' overused images of plunging knives and spilling blood, as the lyrics to "Matches," "Oceans" and acoustic standout "Snails" demonstrate. The music jumps time signatures and musical styles with equal ingenuity, whether it's dance-rock ("Time Bomb"), '60s surf-rock ("She Doesn't Get It") or the title track's Broadway-showtune orchestral grandeur. Then there's closer "If Work Permits," an optimistic rager filled with rapid-fire guitars and furious harmonization. "Hey, I'm doing all right!" Ruess and Means shriek. "I'm doing just fine!" Females? Financial backing? If Problems is any indication, freedom suits the Format better than those two things combined.

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