Remember when every band used to have a kickass name? Yeah, me neither. But while it seems like some groups are really lacking in that department (read: Muse), here’s a band that really excels. Dust Bunnies, a four-piece indie outfit out of Chicago, play a unique mutt-like breed of folk-pop that effortlessly blends derivative psychedelia and strummy bar music with the kind of stuff that it is so far removed from rock music that it reminds me exactly why I hate the blanket term “indie” in the first place.

This album totals 18 songs, a full half of them being the scrumptious kind of sub-minute samples, garbled tones, and single-take instrumental ditties that make lonely jerkwater highschoolers wish they had been alive during the original incarnation of Guided by Voices...and then cry tears of joy when they re-unite.

Another charmingly-disorganized release from Plutapes. Well-played, well-played.

FCC CLEAN

RIYL: Heavy Hometown, Olivia Tremor Control, Guided by Voices, Built to Spill

1. (0:25) Introduction (themed after those airline safety instructional speeches)
2. (3:25) Loose midtempo ballad, sparse guitar, handclaps, drifting swaths of organ.
3. (2:48) Glittery synthesizer fluctuations, stabs at the piano, crashing tides of guitar and spoken word lyrics. Messy and great.
*4. (6:00) Just what the world needs—another song about Novocain. Slow and emotional, as anticipated. Great layered male/female vocals, killer xylophone, nice backup guitar.
5. (0:41) Nutcracker jangly wind-up toy anthem.
6. (3:50) Dueling guitars and synthesizers—cutting a buzzy swath through the haze. Subtle, well-chosen percussive notes.
7. (1:42) 1950’s living room guitar ditty. Swingin’ and with notes of Bossa Nova.
8. (0:28) Short love proclamation. Great vocals.
*9. (1:07) Looped spirals of accordion. Dark earnest male vocals.
10. (0:33) Collage of B sci-fi movies over a bed of psych. In the same vein as track 1.
11. (1:29) Unabashed Phillip Glass tribute. It’s even called “George Glass.”
*12. (2:15) Awesome breakbeat. Distorted wah-wah guitars and cosmic synthesizer that dissolves into a bed or cricket noises. Midwest as hell.
13. (0:53) Minor-key guitar freakout.
14. (1:34) Britpop-influenced twee pop jam with Robert-Pollard nonsensical lyrics.
15. (1:04) Strummy guitar chords, deep resonating orc drums, repetitive lyrics. Sounds an awful lot like the Decemberists.
16. (0:29) Strummy reprise of track 2 with the sounds of airplanes buzzing overhead.
17. (2:46) Slow-chugging garage. Large, abrasive guitar lines and repetitive lyrics (they basically consist of “We Are Not Alone” 40-some-odd times)
*18. (2:46) Prom slow-dance of a lifetime/Breakfast Club coming-of-age outro track. Great vocals and peppy basslines—a really solid track.