The Maine w/ Lydia and Arkells

While the Arizona quintet The Maine didn't depart fully from their trademark saccharine emo-pop on their debut album for Warner Bros., 2010's <I>Black & White</i>, the band did trade in their hooky, high-school punk tendencies for mid-tempo, wistful pop-rock reminiscent of radio acts like The All-American Rejects. Creative differences with Warner Bros. led The Maine to release their latest album, last December's <i>Pioneer</i>, through their own Action Theory label. It's hard to discern what those creative differences might have been, since <i>Pioneer</i> is a fairly straight-forward rock 'n' roll record, perhaps the group's best yet.