The Prom have become one of the most talked-about young bands in the recently-revitalized Seattle music scene. Under the Same Stars is an ambitious mid-fi orchestrated pop extravaganza, completed shortly after the trio's return from their first national tour in the fall of '01 with Death Cab for Cutie. Intelligent and forlorn, The Prom are based around a tight drums/bass/piano backbone augmented by assorted analog keyboards, and, on this new record, by a full string section, flute, and some other studio fun. Comparisons to Ben Folds and even Billy Joel or Elton John are not unwarranted, but the band's McCartneyesque pop sensibility is heavily filtered through the influences of their indie-rock upbringing, more commonly eliciting comparisons to Black Heart Procession or Grandaddy. (And this is no surprise: before settling in the Northwest, prodigiously talented singer/songwriter James Mendenhall and bassist David Broecker grew up in the then-embryonic Omaha, NE scene, playing music with friends who would later form Bright Eyes, Cursive, and The Faint.) In addition to touring the US with Death Cab, The Prom have played west coast shows with such indie luminaries as Bright Eyes, Rainer Maria, Pedro the Lion, and Juno (with the latter of whom David did a tour of duty on bass last year). Live, The Prom are energetic and very engaging, oddly mixing Mendenhall's serious songs with witty, wry, and often hilarious between-song banter. The band is embarking on another US tour this summer in support of this record, and will be on the road more or less nonstop until the end of the year.