Under the Radar #116: The Trouble with Sweeney : I Know You Destroy! Those who can't do, teach. A slight revision of the phrase: those who can't make music, write about it. Sure, nothing is black and white, and it is unfair to condemn entire groups of people as mere wannabes. Yet, did any of you believe that your high school baseball coach was really that great a pitcher himself? Of course you didn't. When it comes to rock writers, take our old buddy Lester Bands, quite possible one of the finest music journalists, well, ever. Bands took a few cracks at music himself - presumable, between penning speed-addled rants on Metal Machine Music and Astral Weeks. The Trouble with Sweeney singer/songwriter Joey Sweeney, himself a music writer for Philadelphia Weekly and Salon, is no Bangs - not that his music journalism is not excellent, it is, but, instead that he is able to channel his knowledge of music into art of his own. I Know You Destroy! sounds like the product of someone who has obsessively studied music; an awkward, dorky white guy with religious prep school behind him and the awkwardness and insecurities seemingly still with him. "Karen" is all Springsteen early-20s yearning delivered in a Westerberg melody. Echoes of Plush's piano balladry can be heard in "Why Can't Anything be Easy Baby?" Most notably and consistently, the album recalled The Replacements, The Lemonheads, The Violent Femmes, Crowded House, and even Matthew Sweet. In the best possible sense, Sweeney's lyrics often toe the line between clever and poignant. The album sounds studied in the way you would expect an album by a music journalist to sound. Influences are instantly recognizable, but not too overt. Of course, if this is the sound of studied, maybe bands like The Strokes should start taking notes. 8 out of 10, by Josh Mound