California Girls

.
There are a ton of good bands playing tomorrow and Saturday at the Capitol Hill Block Party, on the street right in front of our office – Built to Spill, Sonic Youth, the Pains of Being Pure At Heart – but the band I'm most excited to see (as much as I get...excited) is this somewhat elusive two-man duo from San Francisco called Girls (not to be confused with Seattle's The Girls or Parenthetical Girls, Brooklyn's Vivian Girls or any other girls). They put out some limited 7"s last year, such as:

Girls Lust For Life mp3

...and got a deal with Matador, and their album is coming out September 22. All of the songs I've heard are great – I have listened to "Lust For Life" at least twice a day since it came out. I like the way the person singing kind of changes their voice – it reminds me of how Miranda July does the voices of all the characters she writes. I like the vaguely northern-soul sounding bassline and the tambourine, and I like the background vocals. I like the words. I just like the whole thing, really a lot. So I'm looking forward to seeing them live, an experience which they say might involve "lots of floral arrangements, low lighting, kissing, and holding. Like the best girl-boy sleepover party you ever went to." I don't know, it seems nice.

Here's another great one – a perfect summer-night song and video:

Girls "Hellhole Ratrace"



So there's that.

Top photo: Nicole Leighton