Jamboree

Guadalcanal Diary were part of the '80s movement of Georgia artists bent on proving that "Southern rock" could mean something other than Lynyrd Skynyrd (though Jamboree coproducer Rodney Mills, ironically, engineered Skynyrd's classic albums). On GD's only album not overseen by R.E.M. producer Don Dixon, there are still some similarities between them and Athens's favorite sons, to whom the Diary were chronically compared. To be fair, Guadalcanal frontman Murray Attaway's tone does bear some commonalities with Michael Stipe's, and both bands pursued a blend of gentle jangle and postpunk-informed edginess. But Attaway and company were the college-rock cult heroes to R.E.M.'s world-beating MTV darlings. Here, whether they're saluting the Three Stooges on "I See Moe" or creeping into a killer's mind on "Please Stop Me," Guadalcanal Diary employ more rootsy twang than most of their '80s Peach State peers. And the slinky/kinky, jazz-tinged "T.R.O.U.B.L.E." underlines both the breadth of the band's abilities and the quirkiness of their lyrical inclinations.