"It just came out the other day," explains lead guitarist/vocalist Jody Porter. "There are six tracks on it from the sessions we've been doing at TMF Studios here in New York, and it will be available on the Web site and at gigs." Fans coast to coast, and overseas have been chomping at the bit for this album for the past few years, and the message board on their Web site, www.theastrojet.com, is filled with excited chatter about it.

The EP is a truly eclectic collection of brilliantly crafted pop songs that viscerally strike the heart, taking up permanent residence in the soul.

Although obviously drawn from such diverse classic music sources as Revolver-era Beatles and Ziggy-era Bowie, with a smattering of Pink Floyd, The Byrds and da Stones, The AstroJet is supremely original, and modern. In fact, the music defies definition. Except, to listen to their music is to be transported to a world all their own.

Deceptively hidden behind the endearing commercial sensibility of "Waiting For The Stars To Fall," the wall of psychedelic distortion-washed guitars of "You Are Not Alone," and the undeniable bucolic brilliance of "Night For Days," is a mournful, longing, angry and tauntingly romantic soul. Singer/songwriter Jody Porter is cathartically exorcising unrequited feelings still lurking within him.

"Aurora" is rife with sarcasm. About a girl? ("...She goes out to complicate the night" is strikingly astute). "Hide In The Light," for all it's Stone Roses pedigree, is, lyrically far beyond that ilk ("...I can feel the earth give way" is chillingly vulnerable). And "Cars On The Motorway" personifies Porter's inner anger, roiling with tempestuous fury just beneath the surface of his skin. In short, The Astrojet's debut is a Dionysian subway tour through the intestines of New York with Faust behind the wheel.

And many labels have taken notice of this intoxicating concoction. The momentum began to mount when the group entered Strokes producer, Gordon Raphael 's studio at the end of 2001. Two songs from that recording session eventually found their way to "Gordon Raphael's Top Hits Vol. 1," a collection compiled and released in England on Boy George's boutique label, More Protein, and distributed and promoted through Virgin Records. The Astrojet, according to The Musical Express (NME), were the brightest spot on the comp, and they've just completed a video for the single.

"We did that to promote the song off Gordon's comp, which was for 'The Kids Get Higher,'" says Porter. "That was the only song that really got played off of that thing, and there were eight or nine bands on it. It wasn't like it was a compilation searching for the next big thing from New York; it was comprised of bands from all over the place: Seattle, Majorca, Spain — the Special Olympics of rock, really."

Prior engagements had kept Porter from working on the project, but he was finally able to fit in the recording sessions that began last September around a one-month tour with his other band Fountains of Wayne, who were out testing material from their forth coming S-Curve/Virgin Records release.

As we talk, the sound of Ryan Adams dueting with Emmylou Harris on "Oh My Sweet Carolina" from the Adams album, Heartbreaker, lilts through Porter's compact studio apartment just a few floors above the bustling streets of Lower Manhattan's East Village. The song is a slice of Americana that runs in stark contrast to what lurks in the streets of the Big Apple, and everything Porter seems to represent on the surface — effete New York rocker cool — a dark ghost fading into the shadows of Manhattan.

As it turns out, Porter is not all that shadowy. In fact, he's just shy and doesn't talk that much — a fact that causes most to dismiss him as aloof, and arrogant. Is he? No. Sure of himself, and confident as an artist? Yes. He writes all of the material for The AstroJet, but isn't a whip wielding despot flogging his subordinate band members into obeying his every Billy-Corgan-whim either. He knows bassist Dan Haag, guitarist Chad Murdock, and drummer June Sanders are the best people he could possibly be involved with, and thinks that making a point out of his writing everything is somewhat silly, and will probably be angry that it is mentioned at all. Oh, well. He does the writing. They all do the playing. And together they are quite possibly the best band in America. And so it goes.

If necessity is the mother of invention, then New York City is its grandmother. After all, the pace, competition, and cost of living in New York makes everything you do supremely NECESSARY to exist. Every moment is accounted for, thus, it breeds ingenuity. It's a microcosm of humanity, and the scads of artists that live there provide Porter with much of his inspiration these days, which is, of course, necessary to his art.

With The Strokes, Interpol, The AstroJet, The Mooney Suzuki, and, now, Ryan Adams all calling the East Village home, Lower Manhattan has had its rockin' pulse resuscitated, and it seems to inspire Porter. "It's just a really great scene for music," he says. "It's like The Factory days, and you look at the NME, and it's so super-hyped on New York right now. It's sort of a renaissance of sorts."

Porter looks as though he is genetically predisposed to be a rock star — high cheekbones, strong jaw, thin, and tall. And while he has experienced successes with his former band, The Belltower back in England, and Fountains of Wayne, it's The AstroJet that seems poised to fully realize the potential of his songwriting and perhaps become a sweeping commercial success and make good on the full blown rock star bit.

But where does The AstroJet fit into the fray of this New York rock scene? "The AstroJet fits in everywhere within this scene and nowhere at the same time," admits Porter. "Well, pop is universal. There's a rock scene happening here in New York — The White Stripes, despite the fact that they're from Detroit, they're still a part of the sound, you know. It's 'City Rock.' The Fountains of Wayne are unabashed power pop, and always will be. Lyrically the FOW's are very New York, but the sound of the group is actually universal." That both of his groups are such an integral, yet separate part of this scene seems to be very appealing to him.

"That's the thing about New York that somebody asked me in an interview recently; It's not so much about common thread as it is the diversity of it all that makes it sound like New York. That's what New York City is — diversity."

This diversity and some of the despair of the city informs The Astrojet's lyrics in many ways. And perhaps that may be the source of the immediate sense of recognition the songs instill.

"Every night in New York… it's the disillusionment through high expectations that gets me," he says. "New York is the greatest city in the world, but you have to give a lot in order to get anything in return."