Amongst NYC's leading punk luminaries is Jack Rabid - founder, editor, and major contributor to the Big Takeover fanzine. What is not so well known is that Jack is also an accomplished musician, drumming in the 80's with a punk band 'Even Worse', then in the early 90's with shogaze outfit Springhouse, and then later on with the Last Burning Embers. The most successful of these, by a fair margin, was Springhouse. Formed in 1988 they released 2 albums and toured widely over the next 5 years or so. Just like their BritPop-founding touring mates they probably would have gone on to major stardom if they'd stuck at it through thick and thin. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, they all had better things to do - Jack his journalism, singer/guitarist Mitch Friedland his vocation as a New York City Paramedic, and particularly bassist/producer Larry Heinemann as Musical Director to the Blue Man Group, amongst others. In 1998 they started work on a 3rd album and, after just 10 years, including a brief reformation to open for the Chamelons in 2002, 'From Now To OK' was finally released in 2008. A brief east coast tour was arranged to celebrate, going out with the Interpol/ Swervedriver offshoot duo Magnetic Morning. Despite the NYC date being scheduled during the midst of CMJ 2008 I made it my business to be there - well I did arrive four songs or so into the set. Larry it turned out had to be in Europe with the BMG, so his place was taken by Jack's Burning Ember bandmate Dave Bourakas. The first song here 'Moving Van' is possibly the instant hit from the new album, while the second semi auto-biographical 'Alley Park' is from 1993's 'Postcards from the Attic'. Finally 'Eskimo', on which we hear Jack's raspy vocals, is one of their earliest songs - the title track from a 1990 EP.