Catchy SoCal power-pop side-project

The best known names here are OK Go drummer Dan Konopka, OneRepublic guitarist Drew Brown and The Hush Sound bassist Bob Morris, but the songs (and vocals) come from guitarist Ryan McNeill. Collaboration between McNeill and his then-roommate Brown began in 2003, but was sidelined when OneRepublic scored a hit with “Apologize.” Flash forward a couple of years to a chance meeting between McNeill and Konopka that reignited interest in the abandoned band’s material, drew the drummer into playing as a side project. Though some of the material had been around for years, it was fresh to the newly formed band and the result is a buoyant collection of guitar pop whose instantly memorable melodies spring from ingratiating hooks; the playing is tight and the production polished, but retains the imaginative ideas (such as the chance meeting of racially diverse lookalikes in “Curious Pair”) and sincerity that major labels would worry away. Fans of Velvet Crush, Rooney, Sloan, and Teenage Fanclub (not to mention OK Go, OneRepublic and Hush) will take a strong liking to this all-too-short eight track mini-LP. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Curious Pair
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