Facing New York

Despite the band name, Facing New York hail from the punk rock mecca of the San Francisco Bay Area scene, a second-generation emo band with some progressive and post-rock tendencies that grew out of two minor earlier outfits. Singer and guitarist Eric Frederic and keyboardist Rene Carranza's band, Locale A.M., had released two albums, 2001's The Sounds of Spring and 2003's Breaking the Fourth Wall, before splitting. Their labelmates on the local Pop Smear imprint, Tragedy Andy, had released 2003's It's Never Too Late to Start Over before guitarist Matthew Fazzi and drummer Oma...