The Rice Cakes

Art rock is a pretty broad term. Yet, when describing Providence, Rhode Island's Roz & The Rice Cakes, the term art rock is not just appropriate, it's dead center in terms of what they do and how they do it. Under the stuttering time-changes, the crescendos and the complex arrangements, at the heart of these songs, there's a simple pop quality that roots the band at a cross roads where Fleetwood Macand Henry Cow mingle with Bettie Serveert and Gwen Stefani. Roz & The Rice Cakes is equal parts experimental and catchy, energetic and bookish, daring and sugarcoated.