Of SoftLightes and Limelight

"Ah, NME and their hyperbole..." says a not ungrateful Kristian Dunn, bassist in the SoftLightes. The San Diego band (formerly known as the Incredible Moses Leroy) was reviewed in England's New Musical Express for their performance earlier this month at the annual thousand-act College Music Journal confab in New York.

"As charming as a poodle in a tutu," waxed correspondent James Jam in his column titled "The Buzz." Out of the 157 CMJ bands he saw, Jam picked the SoftLightes as one of five to highlight.

Yet, it was Dunn's wife Amy Devers who, during the same week, made a bigger media splash when she appeared on the syndicated Dr. Phil show. Devers (like Dunn, a '90s alum of SDSU and participant in local music scenes past and present) is a professional carpenter and home contractor who holds an MFA in furniture design. She's the cohost of DIY to the Rescue and hosts her own Freeform Furniture program, both seen on the home-improvement-oriented DIY Network.

Earlier this year, DIY Network fan Dr. Phil McGraw brought Dunn and her cohost in on what would be the series' 80th "rescue": the rebuilding of the hurricane-damaged New Orleans home of 78-year-old Marion Camp, a victim of post-Katrina swindlers.

"See [Dr. Phil] call me a crybaby," joked Devers in an e-mail alerting friends to the segment in which the new house is presented to Camp. McGraw never calls Devers a crybaby but does prompt her to emotionally state that the endeavor produced "the most meaningful set of circumstances of my career...."

Normally a half-hour program, DIY to the Rescue: Katrina Rebuild is an hour-long special that will run again on December 1 at 5 and 9 p.m.