Knapsack was an outstanding little late-'90s band from Davis, CA, and This Conversation is Ending Starting Right Now was their swansong. Too hard to call it emo, too subtle to call it punk, too smart to call it rock, their sound is a little bit of everything. They never rise to Jawbreaker's angsty, operatic heights, but they're in the same neighborhood. Like the Promise Ring's output from the same era, I find myself coming back to these guys every year.
When Sleater-Kinney's One Beat came out in 2002, I thought it was a letdown from their '99-2000 one-two punch of The Hot Rock and All Hands on the Bad One. Everyone else seemed to disagree with me, as usual: I remember hearing "return to form" a lot. I still think those earlier discs are superior, but "One Beat" has been growing on me. Apparently their latest, "The Woods," is due out in May. Christ, is it really fair to call them "veteran indie rockers"? Not to them--to me. Nothing makes you feel older than hearing a band you think of as kids called "veterans." I was gonna write something about the Clash, but now that's gonna have to wait. <Cough>
