Gentleman Jesse & His Men

Jesse Smith leads a double life -- when he isn't playing bass with Atlanta's fast, loud, and frantic punk band the Carbonas, he's the leader of Gentleman Jesse & His Men, a combo that revels in the bright, energetic power pop sounds of the early new wave era. Smith first made his name on the Atlanta music scene as a member of the indie rock bands Paper Lions and Some Soviet Station, citing bands like the Birthday Party and Drive Like Jehu as early inspirations, but he became dissatisfied with their creative direction, and as he told journalist Chad Radford, "I remember in '98 ...