Geniuses of Crack

After signing their first major contract, Mark, Steve and Gary--members of the Virginia rock band Bottlecap--travel to L.A. in Gomez's hip but long-winded sequel to Our Noise. Far out of their element, the boys are immediately intimidated by California life and see bad omens for their album around every corner, but only the band's front man, Mark, notices the band's real-life obstacles: a combatively scrupulous producer, a slimy, manipulative executive and a jealous and ambitious mailroom boy. Along the way, the boys have relationship troubles (Steve can't find a girl; Mark can't live alone). In the end, it comes to a decision between selling out and throwing away their big chance. Gomez suffers from a generalized, reductive view of his characters' generation--a view unsharpened by the laundry lists of (undeniably accurate) brand names and pop-culture references. It's a shame, because so many of the minor characters--like Mark's new girlfriend and her parents, or Sam, the guy next door--are promising but poorly used. Instead, Gomez dwells, ad nauseum, on the boys' immature views of their relationships past and present (the violins are deafening here), drowning out the most interesting part of his tale: the question of what it takes to make it big in the hit-driven music business of today. (Oct.)