THE CHOSEN ONES

With a story like his - a childhood spent in the controversial Children of God (now known as the Family International), surviving on the streets ofTexas as an adolescent and having a mentor in Amarillo, Texas, artist/philanthropist Stanley Marsh III - it would've been surprising if his bio hadn't been at the forefront of the push for the band's debut LP, Album. With a homerecorded, critically acclaimed debut and an EP under its belt, the San Francisco-based two-man band - collectively Owens and Chet "JR" White - has found a balance between the bare bones of its beginnings and the at times overindulgent tendencies of the EP to produce a sophomore full-length that reflects the group's maturity.