This SoCal group makes tasty, brooding modern rock that would sound just right on your local college’s radio station. Hell, they may be already appearing on it right now. Magnolia Road is the sort of album that you’d put on when you’re feeling down and need someone to sympathize with you. “Gravity” pretty much sets the Intercept scene: pretty, crystalline guitar notes that soon give way to a larger, cinematic sound with booming guitars at the choruses and Christian Knudsen’s impassioned vocals at the fore. “Two Broken Astronauts” coasts along on a spacey groove and “Imaginary Friends” mixes coffehouse acoustic tones to modern college rock circa 1996. Funny how some things never change. This album is certainly a solid affair, and Intercept is a tight, well-rehearsed band, but there’s something about the overall sound of Magnolia Road that squarely dates it about ten years. Not that there’s necessarily anything wrong with that, but anyone who lived through those times and was going through their college years will definitely feel in familiar territory. Solid, but not quite essential. (Intercept Records)
