While there has been much ado about rock's sharp-dressed saviors, from The Hives to The Strokes, I'm placing my bet on a little quartet out of Sydney, Australia called The Vines to reassert rock-n-roll's commercial relevance. Relocated to L.A., where with studio tutelage from Rob Schnapf they recorded their Capitol debut Highly Evolved, The Vines prove without a doubt the most ear friendly of major label hopes - or hypes - in years. And while the landscape on which they tread is littered with artistically inclined/commercially invisible big league busts from Girls Against Boys to Guided By Voices, so long as songwriter Craig Nicholls is fronting The Vines, they will remain blue chip prospects severely threatening to re-sort the order of A&R priority.

A massively talented, cute-but-dour wunderkind of 24 years, Nicholls bears an uncanny similarity to the last man to crash the cheese party atop the charts 10 years ago. It was hair metal then, it's nu-metal, bubblegum and cut-rate hip-hop now. In concordance to Kurt Cobain, the dozen songs penned by Nicholls on Highly Evolved possess both irresistible streaks of timeless melody matched to feral, feedback-laced rock that's belligerently now. And in the midst of garage rock one trick ponies The Hives and the hype contradicting insularity of The Strokes, The Vines offer the wholly accessible jolt needed to revive and revolutionize mainstream rock's stiffening body.

Highly Evolved covers it all. Starkly personal yet boldly universal, as soothing as the sun on cold shoulders yet as loud and abrasive as a lawnmower, it's rock at its next stage of evolution. It's time to lose the poses, the packaging and the peripherally mundane and to once again let real rock shine.

So let's all wave goodbye to the third generation Pearl Jam knock-offs and the cap-twisted crotch grabbing, DJ scratchin' suburbanites and welcome with open arms The Vines, for they just may be the chosen ones. I further queried bassist Patrick Matthews to un-ravel just what that something is The Vines teeter on the verge of.

The ball is rolling, the machine is in motion, what's the feeling as the band begins their first tour in support of an album with such expectations?

PM: We're very anxious. We've spent six years trying to get to this point where we can release an album. Sometimes we thought it would never happen. And now that it is it is very surreal. I feel very excited. We are very confident with the album and we want to sell a lot of records. That's about the only thing I'm sure of. 

Though he projected otherwise, Kurt Cobain was so obsessive about the perception of Nirvana that he'd stage fake interviews with himself to better prepare for prospective questions. Besides obvious vocal similarities, do you see any of the stage behavioral similarities to Cobain in Craig's behavior?

PM: Well Craig doesn't read our press. He doesn't care. If you show him a NME with us on the cover he will just say 'cool man' and put it aside and not even read it. The rest of us are more interested but no more than normal. Nirvana is a big influence for us. We think it is almost sacrilegious to talk about Nirvana and us in the same sentence. I certainly wouldn't feel comfortable about drawing comparisons.

Obviously the machinations of this industry require a thick skin. Is it hard to just shrug off stuff regarding something that is so important to you? Surely there will be many compromises to come, against your better judgment, in the marketing and promotion of the record.

PM: Yeah, this is probably true. But I think we have been very lucky. We basically had full control over the recording and the album artwork and all the single artwork. It could be a lot worse. We really don't care about other stuff such as whether the press release is cool enough or artistic. We let the record label do their job with marketing and that is fine by us. At the end of the day it is probably easier for us as the US is still a very strange place to us. So to some extent we just do what we have to do and write it off as being part of the craziness that is the U.S.A.

Do you see the 'next big thing' tag as a blessing or a curse? 

PM: Not sure about that one. I guess at the end of the day if it helps people take notice and listen to your record it is good. Obviously we are aware that some people may think we are 'over-hyped' and that might put them off but what can you do? 

Aside from The Vines as a commercial entity, how large of a role is music to you on a personal level?

PM: Music is everything to us. We constantly listen to it. I went through a phase whereI was buying five albums a day (cheap second-hand ones from Amoeba), and listening to new music non-stop. We think music is one of the few 'positive' things in this world. Making it is definitely something worthwhile and constructive. Listening to it is inspiring. Generally music = good.

So many great bands spend careers trying to capture the magic and energy of their debut records. Did this idea of making the first the best it could possibly be inspire you to not slack in any way in the recording?

PM: We really didn't know much about recording, actually. We just went in and tried our best. Craig never does anything in halves so when he is doing rough takes or a soundcheck he screams his lungs out I think this is why the album has a great live feel. To tell the truth, we were already thinking about the second album (which is already written), while still making the first. To us it is one big adventure. If we could, we would live in the studio and never stop. 

How pivotal was Rob in helping you perfect your vision of the record? Is he a hands-on or hands-off type producer?

PM: Rob was great. He got the best out of us. He is a perfectionist and is hands-on in that sense (i.e. he will make you keep doing takes until you get it right), but he doesn't try and fuck with anything or tell you what to play or what to sing, etc. We think he is awesome. He is very funny too.

What bands or artists currently influence The Vines?

PM: Supergrass, Suede, Manic Street Preachers, Muse, N.E.R.D., Salvador Dali, Beatles, Kinks. Everything.

The British press keeps harping on the volatility within the band. Whether you'll explode or implode. Is this just a bunch of crap or what?

PM: I think it is a bit like The Great Rock-N-Roll Swindle. They chose an angle and have to run with it now. They think Craig is mad but really I think he knows exactly what he's doing. There is definitely tension within the band. But we are all very focused.

(Tonight, July 17 at New York's Bowery Ballroom with OK Go, and July 20 at Philadelphia's Theater of Living Arts.)