Bill Mallonee and the Vigilantes of Love

Consider Bill Mallonee the Robert Pollard of the always-fertile Athens, Georgia, music scene. As the leader of the Vigilantes of Love — folksy Southern alt-rockers with a twang in their step — Mallonee and his bandmates released albums at a steady, one-a-year clip throughout the 1990s and into the early part of this decade (albeit with the quality-control often lacking in Pollard's Guided by Voices output). When debt pushed the band to split a few years ago, Mallonee turned solo and kept churning out discs, the most recent being 2005's digital-only Hit & Run (available at www.fundamentalrecords.com). This time around, the Vigilantes are swinging through town intact and reunited, with tales of vulnerable hope and lovelorn dreams in tow.