The Natural Selection, a Rock-Funk-Pop outfit currently based in Denver, takes the name of their latest album, Lasers in the Jungle, from a Paul Simon lyric. The album on which the phrase appeared, Graceland, was highly influential and tremendously successful – two things that The Natural Selection has a very good chance at being if they play their cards right. As the traditional structure of the music industry disintegrates, it’s comforting (not to mention exciting) that people like Sam Glover and his cohorts are making music on their own terms, and with such thrilling results. One of the Lasers in the Jungle’s major strengths is its straightforwardness – a lack of pretense that is genuinely rare in today’s alternative scene, or what’s come to be collectively known as Indie. It almost seems inappropriate to call The Natural Selection “indie music,” although that’s what they are in the strictest sense – self-produced, promoted, and distributed, without financial support or guidance (artistic or otherwise) from a label. But unlike a lot of what’s going on out there in indie-land, the Natural Selection’s sound is actually deserving of the term “fresh” – and not just because it makes you want to shake your booty. The beating heart of the Natural Selection is when they’re in the groove, you can feel it right through the seat of your pants: stripped down to the bare necessities, it’s just you and the band.