Household Names are a rock band combining smart, emotional lyrics with pitch-perfect songcraft on top of a powerful rhythm section. Their new record "Picture In My Head" is a little bit of everything- picks you up when you''re down, keeps you singing in the car, and is there for you the day after. The band is a synergy of lyricist and guitarist Jason Garcia, bassist Chris Peters and drummer CJ Barker, who all play a variety of instruments and add their voices to a smooth full production, helmed by Lars Goransson (The Cardigans, Blondie). "We wanted to make an album that people could really enjoy listening to," Garcia says, "but at the same time be serious with. There''s a touch of sadness to some of these songs."

The band started when Garcia met Peters and Barker through an ad in the local weekly. "I had done a few things on my own before that," Garcia says, referring to debut "The Trouble With Being Nice" and subsequent EP "Hold On Tight!", "but I wanted to find a BAND. So I gave them the first CD to learn. I was amazed when, at our first practice, they had all the parts DOWN. Previously I had to walk people through each bass part! We had our first show a few weeks later."

A commitment to melody and harmony and an unflinching desire to write songs that mean something to Garcia and his bandmates are what sets Household Names apart from the other indie bands of today. "Sure, it''s fun to play two notes on a guitar, jump around onstage and have a great time, but at the end of the day I think people do want songs with some substance," Garcia insists. "We like to write about the gray areas in relationships- the little uncertainties that make them a little darker, more interesting." Chris Peters adds, "We like a lot of bands. And I think that helps us because at the end of the day it''s just the three of us making the decisions, and if there''s one guy in the room who says, ''No, I think that sounds too much like Franz Ferdinand'', we''ll change it." "We write a lot of songs together as a band, so no one person''s opinion is more weighted than another''s," Barker responds. "You could be listening to a lot of Metallica one week, and everyone else is like, ''hey, enough with the James Hetfield voice''."