Everyone knows what a burdock is. We all had to pick those damn purple burrs off our clothes after running through a forest or field as kids at one point or another. Apparently, the Halifax band of the same name developed some strange affinity for them.

"An old man once told me burdocks were the worst thing in the world," says singer and guitar player Seth Smith.

Often compared to Superchunk and Modest Mouse, the Burdocks have been making waves on the East Coast that have been stretching across Canada for about three years now.

"I actually kind of agree [that we sound like] earlier Superchunk and Modest Mouse, in that way you can get anything to sound like something else if you listen for it," says Christian Simmons, who plays bass and sings. "The ones I don't get [being compared to] are Radiohead and the Flaming Lips."

In addition to Smith and Simmons, the Burdocks' line-up includes Nancy Urich on guitar and Sean MacGillivray on drums.

They describe their songwriting like a director might explain moviemaking.

"Generally, Seth or I will show some ideas, or once in a while a whole song, to everyone else, and then two years later, it is a finished song on a record," says Simmons. "In between it gets cut up - both vocally and musically - overanalysed, argued about, forgotten, remembered, reworked and then ideally practiced and played live enough for us all to feel comfortable with it."

"Seth writes songs that are about something real, but he makes it so you can't tell what that is. I write songs that often aren't about anything but sound like they are about something obvious."

"Music first, questions later," Smith explains further. "It has to have heart, or else I'll throw it in the garbage. Actually, I'd probably just throw it on the ground. I'm very influenced by our friends and divorce records stuff."

The Burdocks each derive their influences from very different bands.

"I pick things up from every where," says Smith. "I'm a fan of the Holiday Snaps and Made In The World. I look for originality and passion, but I also like shit like the `Mats and The Cure."

"I like crunchy stuff, like Fugazi and Drive Like Jehu, also Rock Ranger, Change Of Heart, the Wipers, and the Nirvanas," (sic) says Urich.

"I like everything that I can think is doing something good for music," says Simmons, "so I try to do the same thing. I would probably have to admit to being influenced mostly by Polvo, Joan Of Arc, and Pavement."

"My drumming is influenced by Stewart Copeland of The Police, Damon Atkinson of Braid, Michael Catano of North of America, and [Rob Gordon of] From Fiction," explains MacGillivray.

To date, they've released three records: 2000's Lips and Assholes, 2002's I Have A Million Friends, and their latest, the wonderfully addictive Airplane Tracks, released in 2003. They've also had tracks on a handful of compilations.

"We have a full-length in the works, to be recorded at the House of Miracles in London, Ontario and put out on Black Mountain Music," says Urich. "We're not sure when it'll be released. In the spring I'd bet."