Athens, Georgia's the Whigs are proud torchbearers of the bash-and-pop tradition. Like the Living Things (minus the revolutionary pretension), there's a lot of '90s alt-punk revival and '70s riff rock. But singer Parker Gispert's warm Southern drawl is the wild card, even when he's shouting his lungs out. It gives the Whigs a heart-on-sleeve inclusiveness that makes them sound like the bar band most likely to. Check out last year's Mission Control (ATO) — all crash-cymbal happy stomping and serrated riffs. Somewhere, Paul Westerberg is smiling.