These guys have become one of my favorite San Francisco bands and I have proof. I've reviewed them more than any other SF band: February '05, November '05. Why am I so drawn to their music? A free spot on their guest list? Sure, but I could always opt out and play with my cats. The real reason folks is this bands youthful, aggressive, passionate fury. I got a fortune cookie the other day that read "Nothing can be accomplished without passion." It got me thinking, as fortune cookies do, that as I age I lose touch with my passion. It's there; I just need to 'touch' it more often. The Two Gallants are certainly in 'tune' with their passion.

Anyway, it was Noise Pop at Bimbo's, the main stage event featuring Two Gallants along with a cast of others. Everyone, and I mean everyone, was there to see just them. They've amassed a huge following of SF high schoolers, frat boys and even 60 something white couples. Odd you may think, but what these fans come to see is a highly literate, poetic group of young men steeped in the wisdom of James Joyce and critical of the apartheid of Jim Crow. What better way to enjoy Cesar Chavez day but with a white, non-recent immigrant gathering of scholars?

One thing I can say with certainty about these scholars is that they have become truly settled in their sound and performance. Adam Stephen's voice, at the age of 25, has the scarring and raspy-ness of a well-aged rocker and drummer Tyson Vogel plays with the virtuosity and abandon of Damon Che (Don Caballero). What I'm most struck by in the music is the poetry. Check out these lines from what Stephen's referred to as his controversial song called Long Summer Day where he takes on the persona of a black man living in the Jim Crow south:

ALL I'VE EVER KNOWN IS POOR. OWE MY SKIN TO THE COUNTRY STORE. DON'T OWN MY WALLS, MY ROOF, MY DOOR, AND HE TELLS ME I'M FREE. BUT WHY FIGHT THE WILL TO LIVE. HELL MIGHT TAKE BUT HEAVEN GIVES, THERE'S ONLY ONE SO I'LL FORGIVE.

Perhaps the controversy stems from a white man, Stephen's, posing as a black man in the song, or for the use of that dreaded 'n' word, but if you pull away from the political correctness of it all you find an honest homage to the struggles of a 'faithful' god fearing man who has to "fight the will to live" just like many of us do. And don't we all owe our skin to the country store these days? The store being a metaphorical Walmart or a 'cruel', money-grubbing record label? Now, let's be very clear, I'm not suggesting ANY real connection between the two experiences, just poetically.

Regardless, there is no enslavement by label here. They're on Saddle Creek: the label run by the founding emo-core god, Bright Eyes. The fit couldn't be more perfect. I'm waiting for the tour featuring both acts. And what a lineup that would be! A chance to see these new world sadly beatific gurus preaching their longing for lost love and the emancipation of the soul? Priceless.