New Young Adults Album — Preserve Right Now — available on iTunes.

Near the turn of the millennium, something was afoot in Albuquerque, New Mexico. A band was on the verge of breaking out, becoming popular  worldwide, and having a hit song that would feature prominently in both a McDonald's Commercial and a Zach Braff film. Unfortunately for the Young Adults, that band was the Shins.

Now older, married, and with jobs that would have made them slit their wrists 10 years ago, the Young Adults are back. Their new album, Preserve Right Now, contains their eponymous CD plus both sides of the previously vinyl-only "I (Probably) Heart You" single, rough mixes from later recording sessions, and acoustic demos never before released to the public. The album is available from iTunes, Rhapsody, MySpace, and other online music stores.

Lead guitarist and vocalist Greg Gibson, now a web developer for the Indian Prairie (Illinois) public school district, says, "If these technologies had existed when we were together, we might have had a shot. Instead, we burned a thousand CDs and then tried to sell them one at a time in smoky night clubs across the country." The band's tour of the American south, dubbed the "Sherman's March" tour, was a notorious, money-losing failure. "We were idiots," adds Gibson.

Bassist and singer Noah Masterson, now a marketing manager for a mutual funds company in Bethesda, MD, says, "All that work. All those great songs about girls. And I don't think any of us even got laid. I could have gotten my MBA and become something other than middle-management. But instead I wasted the best years of my life in Albuquerque, drinking Schlitz and hoping the chicks would notice me onstage in my vinyl pants. And I remember thinking I was so high-tech because I had a separate phone line for my dial-up modem. Damn you, internet. Why couldn't you have become useful a few years earlier?"

Drummer Brendan Doherty, now a copywriter for a medical research firm in San Francisco, is more sanguine about the band he once backed. "We never actually broke up," he says. "We just sort of drifted apart. But this new album rocks. And with the current state of technology, we now have the luxury of teleportation and cryogenically freezing our heads. So we can reunite anytime."

Usually hovering somewhere between self-conscious indie pop and raucous garage rock, the Young Adults churned out a steady stream of three-chord songs about good girlfriends, bad girlfriends, would-be girlfriends, never-to-be girlfriends, other guys' girlfriends, tomboys, videogames, and the movie "Predator."

Of their first--and only--album, babysue magazine said, "This is a band with surprisingly simple yet unforgettable tunes. It's the guitar/bass/drums thing we've all heard a thousand times before... but seldom does it sound THIS DAMN GOOD."

The Young Adults began their years-long hiatus when bassist Noah Masterson moved to New York with his crippled Black Labrador Retriever. Says Masterson of the move, "Holy Jesus, that was dumb."

myspace.com/youngadultsrock