The Monolators' marry rock, relationship

Eli and Mary Chartkoff look more like the nice couple who’ve volunteered as museum docents than rockers who thrash out garagey, 3-minute anthems that sound as if they were kicked off the “Nuggets” boxed sets for being over-educated. But therein lies the charm of their band, the Monolators, who, if nothing else, remind you never to judge anybody by his fitted shirt.

Their new EP, “You Look Good on the Train,” advances the good-humored agitation they set to tune on last year’s album “Our Tears Have Wings,” and the addition of bassist Andrew Bollas and guitarist Tom Bogdon has quashed those male-female duo comparisons the Monolators heard while the Chartkoffs performed as a twosome.

“That was really a matter of necessity — we’d had other members but they kept dropping out,” says Eli, who, in fact, does work in the library at Occidental College (his wife teaches at Cal State Northridge).

The new lineup has re-energized the singer-guitarist, perhaps in the same way starting the band did. “I’d been in a series of bands that fell apart in depressing ways, and I’d given up on being in a band,” Eli says. “I met Mary at a party, and my ears perked up when she told somebody she played drums. Our first date was playing music together. Drummers are hard to find — that’s the genius thing about being married to one.”

||| See the Monolators perform tonight at the Echo. Also playing: the Amateurs, Mezzanine Owls and Summer Darling.

||| Download: "You Look Good on the Train."

Touts for Tuesday, Sept. 25

Crazy good night to take in some music -- if you're not hitting the Arctic Monkeys/Voxtrot show at the Palladium, or sucking your thumb with this guy at the El Rey, or wondering what all the fuss is about over Midlake at the Fonda, you have these nice, cozier opportunities: Ex-Jayhawk Mark Olson [left] brings his luscious twang to the downtown club Bordello. ... The Mulhollands put an exclamation point on their residency at the Key Club. ... And Mystery Jets (who open for the Klaxons on Wednesday) lead the Dim Mak party at Cinespace.