Fascinating but tragically overlooked, Washington, DC’s Urban Verbs were an arty quintet whose lead singer was the brother of Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz. And therein lay the Verbs’ problem: while guitarist Robert Goldstein guided the band through striking modern instrumental pieces of depth and quality, Roddy Frantz’s urban-alienation lyrics, delivered in a fair approximation of David Byrne’s vocal style, typecast the group as second-string imitators. The Verbs’ records showed great potential, but this needless flaw prevented them from being taken seriously.