The Pangs is Matt Mair Lowery, the guy who brought you later editions of our Under The Radar column. Apparently he learned a lot about what pitfalls to avoid in homemade recordings by listening so many of those CDs. #1, he relinquished production control to his pal Kyle Sheaffer at their Studio Neal (which is a pretty nifty basement studio), where Kyle got some darn good sounds. #2, you can hear his influences (Spoon, GBV, Elvis Costello) and you're thankful his songs hold up on their own. #3, vocals are loud and clear, none of this "I'm embarrassed to be hearing my own voice" indie-rock bullshit here. #4, the packaging looks good and clean, no clutter or in-joke photos needed. I like this record. Mastered at SuperDigital by local hero Jeff Saltzman.