Free Soda

Free Soda comprises Eamon Doyle and Peter Lauterborn, who began collaborating on music in Lauterborn's makeshift bedroom studio in the fall of 2001, while both were juniors at a high school in San Francisco. "Before sophomore year," says Doyle, "neither of us had played an instrument more complex than the triangle. But it had been my boyhood dream to become a gawky, unrefined guitarist, and Peter had always wanted to be a bumbling, amateurish keyboard player. It was a match made in clueless heaven."

After three years of finding their musical feet, the guys gave themselves a name, one chosen for its intimation of universal appeal: Who doesn't like free soda? Armed with a well-oiled drum machine and what the Welsh rock group Stereophonics called "just enough education to perform," they were ready to call themselves a band.

Thirteen-pack, the debut album released in December 2007, represents the best of the duo's eclectic pop songcraft and DIY production.