It is tough getting a new band off of the ground. The average listeners, when they hear a new song on the radio, or in a club, have absolutely no idea what happens between the time that a songwriter hits a chord and sings, "Scrambled eggs, all my troubles seemed so far away..." and the CD, in its spiffy jewel box with pictures of the band and lyrics and song names, with the whole package all shrink-wrapped, shows up in the store or online or wherever. And most listeners have no clue about all of the effort, all of the dreams that go into a project like a CD.

"MY PATHETIC LIFE," the new CD by the scoldees, is an exception to that rule, insofar as the band has been growing up in public for the past few years. Nancy Sirianni, possibly the best-known member of the band, is married to Jackie Martling, an associate of Howard Stern. Martling, and by extension Ms. Sirianni, has had to endure the slings and arrows of Stern's outrageous, uninformed and misinformed opinions over the past couple of years concerning when this CD would be coming out, what it sounded like, blah blah blah. Stern also provided the band with a venue -- his own radio show. While the association with Stern, however tenuous, has been a mixed blessing for the band, it has provided them with one advantage -- people know who they are, on the strength of Stern's quasi-goodnatured harangues of the band as well as their first, self-produced CD, 1997's "BIG ORANGE MARBLE." And people have been waiting for this CD, for a couple of years anyway. And, everything considered, it was worth the wait. "MY PATHETIC LIFE" is a surprisingly confident, competent CD which overcomes the weaknesses of "BIG ORANGE MARBLE" and showcases the band's strengths from musical, vocal, and songwriting standpoints. The opening track, "Silly Girl," sounds just a bit like very, very early Suzanne Vega -- nothing wrong with that by any means -- while the band manages to find and maintain its own voice, through tunes like the almost painfully personal "All I Want,"to "Cellophane Man," and "One Stone." If there is a common thread through these songs, it is that of the uneasiness of maintaining relationships. When Ms. Sirianni sings "they say be careful what you wish for" and then concludes "but all I really want is you" in "All I Want" we knows exactly what she means, don't we? It is this connection which the band and it's material achieve with its audience -- also noteworthy on songs such as "My Bright Life" and "Masks" -- that makes "MY PATHETIC LIFE" a surprising and welcome standout among the first releases of the new year.

"MY PATHETIC LIFE" is a CD which will definitely connect with fans of lighter rock music, particularly the ladies (my wife, for example, absconded with the CD shortly after our first couple of listens and it appears to now be a permanent fixture on her car CD player). The gentlemen in the audience, however, will also enjoy "MY PATHETIC LIFE" for the imaginative and unique arrangements which highlight and complement each of the tunes found on it. Recommended, no matter what Howard says.