At CIII, before the showing of Phantom Menace Saturday night, we were treated to a little serenade from Kevin Packard of Checkpoint Charley. He sang us a little song called 'Han and Leia' - a sweet little ballad Han might have sung if SW had been a musical. Not only was the song hysterical (mezmerized by her danish hair), but the melody was super catchy (you 'n me and chewie makes three). I knew I had to buy the CD he had for sale or I'd go crazy trying to remember the lyrics. To my delight, there were 4 other tracks on the "Pop Trilogy" disc, plus a preview disc of their upcoming album.

I truely enjoyed the Pop Trilogy, so in with the other disc -- how many times can you play a CD before it goes bad? I may be close. I played the life out of the preview disc, waiting impaitently for the full release. At last, "Checkpoint Charley in Songs One through Twelve." Six more songs that I completely love. I think it's mostly because it's different than the same 'ole stuff I hear on the radio, or maybe it's the smart lyrics, or the fantastic melodies -- whatever it is, it's great.

Maybe I'm talking them up too much. But maybe I'll pique your interest just enough to go over to thier little slice of the web and read up on them. Maybe go over to notlame.com and listen to a few clips. Maybe you'll even say "12 bucks, I can swing that" and buy the album and love the fact that every single track is a great song.

And if you go download the tracks off the net you're bantha poodoo! (OK, you can preview them -- but Then go BUY the CD!)

If for some strange reason someone of Checkpoint Charley actually reads this, my favorite pop trilogy is InVader, and I simply love Speechless. Oh, and the rest of the tracks too.