They're name is Earl

• Good Brother Earl hits the sweet spot once again with a third record, "Fiction," that remains faithful from the band's warm, jangling alt-country sound.

It has been more than three years since the Pittsburgh group released the polished "Perfect Tragedy." The band decided to take its time on the follow-up, and since then, a couple of the guys have added to the GBE fan base with babies, pushing the project back a bit.

Once again, the vivid songwriting and rich vocals of frontman Jeff Schmutz are the focus, with the band providing seamless and organic backup.

"We have gotten better at the recording and producing process and arranging the parts of the band," Schmutz says. "It's a group effort that ends up concentrating more on the song than the individual players. When you focus on the song it brings more of a cohesiveness to the band as opposed to five guys just going out there and playing their parts."

Good Brother Earl still takes its cue from such bands as Counting Crows and the Jayhawks, while changing the tempo at times like on the honky-tonk rocker "Drexler."

"That's probably another outcropping of the eclectic nature and short attention span of the band," Schmutz says. We're influenced by a lot of bands and a lot of different styles and they tend to pop up in the album."

The classic-rock influences run deep on "Second Hand Heart," which starts with a Band-like chord progression and Dylan-style vocal before veering into a ballad a la George Harrison.

"We didn't directly go for a Dylan feel but as a fan of Bob Dylan it's hard to deny the influence," Schmutz says. "It's like with anything else, the more you listen to the bands and artists you like, the more they creep into your writing. We use a lot of vintage guitar and keyboard sounds ... we're audio geeks. We love the sound of old Dylan, Beatles, and Zeppelin records and try to emulate the masters when we can."

One of the tracks that stand outs on "Fiction" is "Toy Soldier," a song that addresses the military's "sacrificial lambs."

"I wrote that song after attending a funeral in Arlington National Cemetery," he says. "I wasn't trying to make a statement or write a protest song, it was just really rough seeing guys my age get buried."

The CD release show is Saturday at 7 p.m. at Diesel, South Side, with Stateless. The $10 cover includes complimentary CD.

Sound of Rot

• Over the past few years, Pittsburgh's long and glorious list of musical exports -- you know, Skyliners, Christie, Benson, Root, Aguilera, etc. -- has gotten a loud, rude addition in the festering form of Rot [S---].

Obliterating that line between hardcore punk, garage and pure noise, the band drops its third 7-inch on Columbus Discount Records with a gig Friday night at 10 p.m. at Gooski's in Polish Hill with Pittsburgh's own Mud City Manglers and Tusk Lord, and Columbus' Unholy Two.

Rot's credentials? Members come from Burndowns, Modey Lemon and Slices.

Rot gets appropriately riotous press such as Maximum Rock and Roll calling them "Tuneless, completely falling-apart-at-the-seams, loud, rude, offensive ... and hilarious." Dusted magazine chimes in labeling one song a "three-chord stomp that squeezes the blackheads out of this era's nose."

Check out hyper sonic assault of "Hipster Grandma" on the band's MySpace page, and you can see how that's possible. According to that MySpace page, Sounds Like: "Your dreams shattering inside your brain."

You can experience that Friday for a mere $5. Then, the band oozes past our borders for shows in NYC and Columbus. After that, it might be over, as Vin is leaving Steeltown for the nice City by the Bay.

Bowhunter's hits target

• Out with the old grunge, in with the new ... Pittsburgh band Bowhunter formed in the spring of 2008 to give birth to what they call a new grunge "without that third verse that everyone skips."

"To that end," they continue, "four bearded fellows joined together in a filthy Bloomfield basement, drank countless beers and got to work."

Bowhunter's basement grunge is assembled with raw-edged vocals, rhythmic fits and starts and guitars that grind like saws and drills.

The good news for money-conscious music lovers is that you can download the band's self-titled debut for free www.theatomicfamily.org.

Houserockers reunion

• The original Iron City Houserockers will reunite once again Saturday at Altar Bar in the Strip, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the release of the debut album "Love's So Tough." The Houserockers will be recording the show for a live CD release. It begins at 10 p.m.

Critics Andrew Druckenbrod and Scott Mervis talk about music on "The Beat," available exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.