Sound Check

Although three of the four members of the North Miami Beach-based rock quartet Atomic Tangerine can't vote yet, or legally buy cigarettes or Lotto tickets, you can check the "baby face" comments and Hanson comparisons at the door. These guys can rock with the best of the local veterans.

Seventeen-year-olds Josh Snyder (vocalist, guitarist), Mitchell Cutler (lead guitarist), and Aaron Melamed (drummer), and eighteen-year-old Robby Simon (bassist) make up the three-year-old band that started off on the wrong note.

"We all played guitar," says Snyder, recalling the days when the teens first started dreaming of rock success. "But then we realized we couldn't have a band with four guitarists. So Aaron's dad had an old drum set that he was using to hold up a table. So we got that out, set it up, and then we just got going."

The recent high-school graduates (except Cutler, who has one more year to go as a jazz-guitar major at the New World School of the Arts) cultivated their altrock sound in Melamed's bedroom, where they played cover tunes. As they became more dedicated, they moved into a spare room (affectionately dubbed the "band room") and started playing originals.

Atomic Tangerine, a six-song CD, is the fruit of their labors. A mix of altrock and pop, the radio-friendly songs are witty and reflect influences ranging from Miles Davis to No Doubt. A good example of the band's youthful sensibility and fervor for straight-ahead rock 'n' roll is "Wiseman." The three-minute, guitar-driven track pokes fun at the restraints placed on today's youth by authority figures.

Atomic Tangerine will perform as part of LoveFest '98 at the Sandbox in Hollywood at 8 p.m. Sunday. Ten other local bands will perform that night at the Sandbox, which, true to its name, actually does have sand on the floor as you walk in.

To get more information on Atomic Tangerine, a band named after the shade of a colored pencil, check out their label's Website at magiccityrecords.com.