The Happy Hollows' punched-out pop

The Happy Hollows are almost as fun conceptually as they are sonically. They’ve become the latest indie darlings in Silver Lake thanks to an almost pugilistic mix of stinging guitars, turbulent rhythms and shouted vocals.

But frontwoman Sarah Negahdari’s yelping — is it tortured or is it joyous? And all that racket laid down by bassist Charlie Mahoney and drummer Chris Hernandez: angry or exuberant? Is the trio happy? Or hollow?

“I like it that we straddle the line — there’s the stone, and then you turn over the stone and see what’s underneath,” she says. “I even love it when I occasionally look out and see people in the crowd laughing. It’s not necessarily the thing you’d think a rock ’n’ roller would want.”

The Hollows’ clipped pop -- imagine that somebody rewired the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, or squeezed the Pixies into a compact-car parking space -- coalesced quickly. Negahdari had almost given up forming a band in 2005 when she found Washington, D.C., transplants Mahoney and Hernandez on Craigslist. “We got together, played one song, and I said, ‘OK, we’ve got a show in two weeks,’” Negahdari says. “Meeting them catapulted me into a different dimension.”

The band’s initial “Bunnies and Bombs” EP earned blogger raves and magazine praise; now the trio is distributing a four-song sampler during its at the Echo. The songs are from an album's worth of material the trio has recorded with David Newton (the Little Ones, the Blood Arm).

||| See: The Happy Hollows play free shows tonight and the next two Mondays at the Echo. The Western States Motel is among the openers tonight.

||| Download: "Monster Room."

Comments

[wayne]

the new versions sound WAY better than the demos, but still not my cup o' tea...