P&N: Putting the amp back in ampersand
DOWNLOAD: Pretty and Nice, "Grab Your Nets" (mp3)
Pretty and Nice? No and no, actually -- ugly and raucous is more like it -- but they've got "Your New Favourite Band" written all over 'em. This Boston-via-Vermont foursome (or maybe threesome? MySpace is inconclusive) infuses thrill-crazed power-pop with the mad-noisy, chimp-like energy of juvie-hardened teenage degenerates. Their sound is all action -- trebly downstrokes, wobbly sci-fi synths, a clobbering rhythm section that sounds about to run off the rails but never does -- and their songs are as subtle as a felony. "Holden," the singer, sports a fake-Brit accent and frequently veers into a yawlpy falsetto which can make him seem (like that other Holden?) a Moddish cynic one second, the next a wild-eyed, basement-punk naif. If these YouTube clips are to be believed, maybe they're about to transform into a cross between Daughters and Brainiac? In any case, probably the best band in town you haven't heard of yet. Peruse the right-clickage above, then catch the band January 26 at O'Brien's.