I know you don't see many hard music releases on Alarma Records, but this is the best Christian band to come from Seattle since Bloodgood. Yes, of course, these guys are riding the trendy "music revolution" wave that Soundgarden crested several years ago. Terry Taylor gives the guys a jangly, controlled sound that teeters the band more in the direction of Smashing Pumpkins or Nirvana than, say, Pearl Jam.
Guitarist Aaron Sprinkle gives the band a varied menu of sounds -- mostly drawing on the tube, wah, and fuzz sound of the 60's. Resisting the tendency to just make music for the heck of it, Poor Old Lu has a cause behind its lyrics. "Peapod" defines the lost-ness of many, "We've been tripping around so wrong/ I know we've lost our sight;" while "Cruciality" exposes the futility of hippie-ness, "Enough of flower power -- step on ways that make us sour;" and brings us full circle to the answer -- "this world needs the Son."
For variety, pay Poor Old Lu a visit. For heaviness, go Pet The Fish instead.