The Thieves

The Thieves -- brothers Hal Stokes (guitar) and Sam Stokes (bass) plus Jamie Dawson (drums) -- formed in Oxford, England, in 1999, and started snatching the British spotlight with their backward-reaching but tuneful rock soon after. Local shows and a self-produced demo prompted the BBC to come calling by the early 2000s, the catalyst for what the band thought would be a career-boosting move to California. But the Thieves didn't arrive in the U.S. riding a crest of popularity enormous enough to land them on the lips of more than a handful of stateside rock scenesters, and it was only after stealing away to a home studio north of Los Angeles and honing its sound that the trio emerged with a disc to advance its classic rock cause.

White Line, a four-track EP produced by fellow Brit <a href="spotify:artist:7bXgB6jMjp9ATFy66eO08Z">Chris Brown</a> (<a href="spotify:artist:4Z8W4fKeB5YxbusRsdQVPb">Radiohead</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:12Chz98pHFMPJEknJQMWvI">Muse</a>), was released in late 2004; a spate of respectable reviews -- many of them making much of the act's obvious debts to such stalwarts as <a href="spotify:artist:67ea9eGLXYMsO2eYQRui3w">the Who</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:36QJpDe2go2KgaRleHCDTp">Led Zeppelin</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:0k17h0D3J5VfsdmQ1iZtE9">Pink Floyd</a> -- followed. From there came a flurry of tours, including a make-or-break appearance at the annual South by Southwest showcase in spring of 2005. Encouraged by the Yanks' embrace of their power chord-propelled sound, the Thieves returned to the studio, again with <a href="spotify:artist:7bXgB6jMjp9ATFy66eO08Z">Brown</a> at the helm, in 2005. Tales from the White Line, released in October of that year on the independent Liquor and Poker label, marked the Thieves' debut full-length. ~ Tammy La Gorce, Rovi