Static Prevails and Clarity are awesome. So is the self-titled EP. Anyone who says otherwise... hasn't heard them.
I vote coincidence. Anyway, my first reaction on hearing "23" was that the opening riff sounded like something from Seven Storey Mountain. (I think it reminded me of a song of theirs called "Your Lips" from 1995, but they've got a few with riffs like that.) And, strangely enough, SSM is from the same area as Jimmy Eat World (Mesa, AZ). (SSM's Leper Ethics is brilliant, and a classic example of how good emo was before it got neutered by assholes like Dashboard Confessional.)
And, speaking as an American, if you threw a rock in Times Square, you'd hurt somebody and still not find someone who'd heard of Matt Good and/or EIA.
Oh, and Ex-Pats sounds like the Who.