Moonlight Towers

Texas band Moonlight Towers don't try to reinvent the wheel. If they make it onto TV, they'll be the second band on an episode of Austin City Limits where the headliner doesn't quite have enough music for the entire show and there's an additional 20 minutes to fill. And in that context, they'd do rather well because a short dose of Moonlight Towers isn't a bad thing at all. Their very straightforward barroom guitar rock does all the right things. The songs build up nicely to an anthemic chorus, throw in a guitar solo and return to the chorus before succinctly ending. It's all very businesslike, not straying far from a time-tested formula, which has been shown to work by the likes of the Smithereens. The downside is that when their music hits the half-hour mark, as it does on their third album, Day is the New Night, it becomes apparent that this is all they have to offer. There's no cohesiveness to the record ― it's just nine of their songs ― and without seeing the obvious enthusiasm that the band put into their performance, it isn't particularly memorable. This is enjoyable, but not novel in any way.