Rooster Cow Records, 2007. www.Soft-Targets.com

Columbia connection: Guitar player and label owner Chris Auman (B.A. ’93), graduated from Columbia’s fiction writing program.

The Sound: Post-punk/indie

The Word: Despite numerous lineups since the band’s inception in the summer of 2004, Soft Targets released this cohesive album this fall. The sound is simple, straightforward pop rock (think the Toadies meet the Pixies). The band’s previous release, Whatever Happened to Soft Targets?, an EP, received positive reviews from local press. “This four-piece just about nails an icy-cool, post-punk sound halfway between the Only Ones and Joy Division,” wrote Miles Raymer in the Chicago Reader. And bassist Dan Kiss, whose chugging baselines sound dirtier than the dirtiest White Stripes song, works a day job that seems unlikely for an older indie-rocker: He’s a Cook Country assistant public defender.

(To submit a recording for consideration in DEMO, send a CD and press release to: DEMO magazine, Columbia College Chicago, 600 S. Michigan Ave., suite 400, Chicago, IL, 60605. Priority will be given to recent recordings on a label. CDs will not be returned.)