I'm so glad you linked to The 88. Their album's been really overlooked so far, and I'm not sure that their OC tie-in is going to get it heard by a lot of the people who'd probably like it.

wow, a very LA-centric mix up there. giant drag's got some great buzz going...the 88 are a great live band, but the vacation. ugh. they somehow managed to get a slot opening for british sea power and they effectively proved to be the worst opening band, ever. a combo consisting of dirty, sickly skinny dudes who were wayyy too fucked up to be playing rock 'n' roll and proceeded to fall all over themselves.