A-teens Music:

		List Price: $14.98		Label: Merge Records Salesrank: 275088 Released: October 3, 2000
		Our Price: $32.26
		Used Price: $2.90
		Media: Audio CD

Sweet Bird of Youth Track Listing:
1. Car and Driver
2. If I Wanted to Be Famous (I'd Have Shot Someone)
3. Please Don't Go Downtown Tonight
4. Betwixt or Between
5. Make It New Again
6. Sun's Up
7. It's Destiny
8. Hwy R
9. If You Only Knew
10. I Hope You Never See Me Like This
11. That Day Is Today
12. Ma, Look What the City Did to Me
13. Our Future Was Then
14. Lee Knows Every Raindrop
15. Put It Right Out of Your Mind
16. No Books About It
17. Pretty Thoughts Strike Down the Band

Sweet Bird of Youth Reviews:
R*A*T's Never Fail To Delight
2005-02-09 - Literate, nostalgic, swirling, chaotic, melodic. Reminiscent of a genteel garden party turned Spo-Dee-O-Dee fueled debauch come nightfall. Another reviewer mentioned the track "If I Wanted To Be Famous I'd Have Shot Someone" but I believe he failed to mention that this song is so indescribably brilliant that it should not only be a hit single in perpetuity, but arguably should replace the lackluster "Star Spangled Banner" as this nation's chosen anthem. Fans of greatness will appreciate this album (and all its predecessors) immensly; fans of bloated,insincere,over-produced "alternative radio"pap will likely, um...not.

betwixt or between..
2000-11-04 - this group may have one of the most horrible (and possibly crippling names) of all rock groups but they are talented. betwixt or between was the first single that i heard while i was driving in my car and i just couldn't turn off the radio...

Not as gimmicky as you might think.
2000-10-27 -

Chris Lopez, fearless leader and creative force behind Rock-A-Teens, doesn't just invite misunderstanding, he rushes out to greet it at the door of his antebellum manor house, doffing his porkpie hat with a low bow in impeccably genteel fashion. Why don't these guys suck? The band name made me extremely wary, even if it is ironic -- more so if it's ironic, I'm way past the stage in my life where I think mocking the noble impulse to rock is funny -- and this whole idea of Rockabilly With a 90's Edge! seemed like a big fat marketing ploy to me, never mind that it's obviously failed. But before hearing a second of their music I lazily assumed that, like Mercury Rev, Jon Spencer, or various Elephant 6 apparatchiks before them, they were just preying unimaginatively on the past, scrambling desperately for a relatively uncrowded niche to fill.

The truth is, Chris Lopez has shot himself in the foot with all this "art-a-billy" stuff, there is much more going on here, as became immediately apparent when "If I Wanted to be Famous ( I'd Have Shot Someone )" launched itself into glorious existence with Indian-sounding guitar, a chugging riff, and a paraphrase of Thoreau that's just as indelible as the famous quotation it derives from ( "Quiet desperation is not for everyone... But it likes me! It likes me!" )

But then that's not too surprising -- the album itself is named after a Tennessee Williams play. Literary references do not automatically pop brilliance make, of course, but they can't hurt, especially when the music is this fluid, addictive, distinctive, ringing and personal. "Personal" is the key -- Rock-A-Teens, like their Southern forbears Big Star, have greatly benefitted from unpopularity. Whereas their previous album Golden Time was slightly ( but only slightly ) marred by novelty-song wankery like "Little Caesar on a Bicycle" -- which sounds like The Cramps circa 1981 -- on this one Lopez is singing just to survive. Check out the title; SBOY is a loose concept album about aging and nostalgia, like Pulp's This is Hardcore or Oasis' Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, but less oblique -- and please don't hold my references against them, if you're indie snob enough not to appreciate those albums.

All right, I've done my bit, however feebly. This is a great band and a sunken treasure, no doubt about it. However, first-timers might want to start with Golden Time, which socks you in the gut immediately. This one's a grower.