Despite some fashionable punk-pop and emo trappings, Southern California quintet Faulter is at heart an unapologetic pop band with clear mainstream aspirations, like some kind of chart-bound cross between Jimmy Eat World and the Killers, or perhaps a Duran Duran for the Hot Topic generation. Formed in Orange County in 2003 by high school friends Andy Carpenter (vocals, guitar), Jonathan Carpenter (keyboards, guitar), Mike Levindofske (guitar, vocals), Jarred Dooley (bass), and Richard Boutwell (drums), Faulter got an early hand up through a friend of the Carpenter family. Prod...