Margaret Eichler is a full-time working musician who wears the badge with pride. Over the years she has put in hours teaching piano lessons, moonlighting in the metal band Sparrows Point, producing albums for others in her new home studio (Absolutely True Sound), and fronting her own piano pop-driven ensemble, True Margrit (Eichler on keyboard and vocals, Andrew Bacon on drums, and Gary Hobish on bass). Eichler can claim to fit into both the folk and rock spectrums – she regularly gigs at a range of Bay Area venues, from the Rose Street House of Music to the Red Devil Lounge – and in True Margrit, she straddles the line between both genres. The band's latest album, Seaworthy, is a collection of Eichler's clever and sea-salty ruminations on space, time, vanity, and ethereal connections. The songs are part of a still-in-progress rock opera titled Glampyre on the Bounty, about a time-travel reality show that dumps contestants onto an 18th-century ship. Eichler's lyrical sensibility melds with her infectious beat-heavy piano licks. Bacon and Hobish ably back her, adding counterpoint and weight to the band's overall sound. Those who are tired of tremulous emo-drenched acts, and want to hear a singer-songwriter whose words and music stand up for themselves, should give this album a listen. (Laurie Koh)

Neung Phak
Fucking USA (Abduction)

Locals Neung Phak – the alter ego of art rock conceptualists Mono Pause – specialize in covers of lost Cambodian and Thai pop songs, but the North Korean anthem "Fucking USA" has been a highlight of their live sets for years. The first time I saw them play, in late 2003, the only English words in their entire set came from this song: "fucking USA" and "Yankee go home!" As a window into how others see us, this synth-laden, minor-key punk song is priceless, not to mention morbidly hilarious. The band nail "Fucking USA" on side one of their three-song, vinyl-only EP, then turn around and offer up a sedated, tongue-in-cheek version of it – recorded live on New Jersey's WFMU and retitled "Far King USA" – on side two. From that same set comes the third track, "Tui Tui Tui," a bubbly synth pop song featuring the superb Diana Hayes (formerly of Dynasty) on lead vocals. Of course, Neung Phak would never be content with something so mundane as merely playing good songs and being entertaining – how else to explain the maddening skipping-CD effect that closes this song? Still, they entertain in spite of themselves, much as they score high on the artistic concept scale despite being "just a cover band." (Will York)

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