Strip mall chintz. Cinder block suburbs. Depressing Dairy Queens. Hirsute hesher metal. For lifelong desert dwellers and North Phoenix, Arizona natives Jeff Bufano and Chris Corak this deadening litany could've doubled as a description of their adolescent lives. Before long the two schoolyard chums and burgeoning musical misfits began pining for something more than an existence predicated on old Slayer riffs and tweaker- trailer culture. And so, Reubens Accomplice was born. The band's peculiar journey– a labyrinthine saga that's taken them from high school talent shows to amphitheatre stages– has yielded a spectacular bounty in the sun struck pop perfection of their latest album, the Jim Adkins (Jimmy Eat World) produced THE BULL THE BALLOON AND THE FAMILY.