Rock & roll is like the villain in a terrible thriller: it refuses to die. No matter how many times you machine-gun it, ice-pick it, thwack it over the head with a tire iron or slip arsenic into it's Jack & Coke, it comes lumbering back into the scene with slightly renewed vigor and a bloodstain on it's torn shirt. It survived the synthesizer and the drum machine, it survived disco and autotune. And no matter how many times you've seen and heard it, the plot of good rock & roll is always simultaneously reassuring and refreshing. Erik Blood makes cinematic rock & roll that makes me wonder if Martha Reeves and Morrissey had a secret lovechild named Erik Blood. "Home and Walk" and "To Leave America" drive with a frustrated urgency, while tunes like "Too Early Too Late" and "Or Am I Wrong" pulse with a euphoria and beat reminiscent of 60's pop music. Perhaps Blood's strongest asset is his production ability. His record, The Way We Live, has just enough gloss to enhance the grain, enough punch to keep the competing layers of guitar, drums and xylophone separate. Some of the pop grandeur is sacrificed in the live show but the songs are well-written and cohesive, and the grit of rock & roll keeps the songs interesting even when they lose their film-like beauty. Plus, Erik Blood is a handsome dude.