It’s hard to tell how serious My Teenage Stride are as a band. Some of their songs seem like attempts at mimicing other bands (The Wedding Present, The Chills) and main man (and MTS’s only constant) Jedediah Smith is prone towards jokey stage banter, like introducing themselves as other bands in between every song. ("Thank you! We’re Megadeth.") I guess it doesn’t matter when the songs are as catchy as they are, and Smith’s sense of humor comes off more thoughtful than "ha ha" in his lyrics. Tonight’s show at Cameo is yet another iteration of MTS, as this band blows through band members like The Fall. The new group are tight enough, even when pulling out old chesnuts this lineup hasn’t really ever played.

This seems to have no affect on the band, as it is, as they’re currently putting out some of their best-ever material via a series of exclusive releases on Emusic. Much like the Wedding Present did in 1992, My Teenage Stride are putting out a "single" every month in 2009, though they are a bit behind. (We haven’t had one since February.) But if the rest of this year is as good as "Creep Academy" (which will be amongst my Singles of the Year), 2009 looks to be very good to them. Even if they didn’t play it tonight!