St. Louis, Missouri: Population 340,000, neither east nor west nor north nor south, a crossroads for rivers, a maze of Roosevelt-era brick buildings, which once housed newspapers, juke joints, hotels, homes, and still does - a city with American music seeping from the cracks. Here, on the 4th floor of a old factory building, a group of musicians have built a studio from scratch to make new music - acoustic music, electric music, hybrid music - music which remembers what rock n' roll once meant.

Formed in 1996, Nadine is Steve Rauner (guitars, keyboards), Adam Reichmann (lead vocals, guitar), Todd Schnitzer (drums, keyboards), and Anne Tkach (bass). Reichmann and Schnitzer have made music together for ten years, emerging from the heady days of St. Louis's alt-country scene to join kindred spirits Rauner (formerly of Wagon) and Tkach (Hazeldine). Together they have found a voice that reflects their love of honest, unpretentious pop music and studio experimentation.

Lit Up From the Inside is Nadine's third and finest album. The band began working on the 12 songs during the winter of 2000, and tracked the record over a month in the spring. A less pensive record than the preceding Downtown, Saturday, Lit Up From the Inside features the heartfelt lyrics, confidant vocals, and cohesive DIY aesthetic. When critics don't know what to say about a band they usually fall back on "undefinable" or "genre-defying." Nadine may be all that, but they're also about something else. Call it American rock, with a loose-fitting intelligence and sincerity - music that comes alive as painted, moody ballads or as that wildly catchy guitar rock the radio used to play in the summer. Three or four chord songs bent into interesting, yet still familiar forms with hummable melodies, sweet harmonies, and fat back beats. Songs you can sing over and over and never quite exhaust. Rock 'n' roll that isn't afraid to matter, without ever really trying to.