When you hear it, you know it: the same undeniable spirit that was in the air the first time we heard Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash, or Kat Bjelland exorcising herself into a mic, or Mason Jennings budding in his living-room practice space, or the Rhymesayers blooming in the Entry, or Melodious Owl lifting the Turf Club off its moorings at a show this past February. "The town is exploding," one barfly said that night, and ain't it the truth--what with the sudden hum of the Current and bands like the Gleam (as first heard on Jack Sparks's The Other Side of Country), who cut their teeth drinking and playing at a corner bar in rural Minnesota and are now poised to take the Cities by storm. The eight songs off this debut prove that alt-country's torrid affair with the land of sky-blue waters is alive and shit-kicking, so it's about time we all start referring to these guys the way their kick drum head does: the Goddamn Gleam.