Jokey pop-punk bands are a mainstay of any town large enough to have a local bar for them to play in, so it takes something more for one to break through, such as lyrics that are as intelligent as they are funny and enough pure pop melody to balance the punky energy. Enter the Wombats, a three-man cross between Art Brut's Wire-like fractured art-punk and Half Man Half Biscuit's wicked Liverpudlian humor. Not only are the Wombats fellow Scousers, they have a tangential Beatles connection: singer and guitarist Matthew "Murph" Murphy and drummer Dan Haggis fo...[more]