Want a recipe for a killer album? Whip out your metaphorical mixing bowl and combine the following ingredients:

-Two cups of Sugar (as in the Bob Mould variety)
-Two eggs worth of melodic sensibility
-Three tablespoons of sizzling, 90s-era indie guitar rock like Monsterland, Pollyanna, and the like.
-A pinch of cello for taste

Crank the oven to "11," bake for 37 minutes. Let cool. Yields eleven irresistible slices!

So what in the hell am I talking about? None other than Chicago's neglected Verbow, who's debut album, Chronicles, happens to have Bob Mould's recording credits all over it. The Sugar comparisons are inevitable and fairly dead on, but Verbow don't exude quite the lead-foot on the distortion pedals, balancing out full-tilt rockers like "River Wish" and "The Chronicles of Agent Kidd," with the more subdued "Man in Mile High" and "The Distance Between Us." Verbow expired in the early '00s after their second album "White Out" failed to catch fire. You can read up a little more on the band at Bill's Music Forum. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.