Ears Wide Open: The Hectors' smart, edgy pop

[One in a series designed to keep one finger on the pulse of the local music scene and the other on the "download" button:]

 

The Hectors have a sense of humor to go along with their pop chops, which is only natural when you consider the L.A. quartet has a boyfriend-girlfriend songwriting team, influences ranging from the syrupy to Fugazi and a drummer who wanted to name the band the Lollipop Guild.

They've done an interview (of sorts) to promote today's release of their second EP, "Sometimes They Collide." Watch it here and take notes.

"It's amazing what we don't have in common," singer-guitarist Corinne Dinner says of the foursome that began in songwriting and recording lessons with beau Jim Saunders (bass) and expanded to include Robert Bonilla (guitar) and Erik Greene (drums). "The EP has a little bit of everything, from hooks to sludge."

It has the poppy "Cold Star" (reminds me of Letters to Cleo), an anxious ditty called "Carol and Sanford" -- "about a really shy Bonnie and Clyde," Dinner says -- and the brooding "I Drove All the Way From Bridgeport to Make It With You," a line lifted from the Woody Allen movie "Stardust Memories." The latter song was also on the Hectors' first EP, which the band isn't sharing anymore, because, well, "none of us were very happy with it."

They're in a better mood now. They will celebrate "Sometimes They Collide" with a show tonight.

||| See the Hectors, along with Radars to the Sky and Tigers Can Bite You, as part of the "Let's Independent" one-year anniversary bill tonight at Boardners. It's a free show presented by local blog Radio Free Silver Lake.

||| Download: "Proof of Sale."