Tryin' t' get Out... (Belle Ghoul)

The last time Christopher Tait had a music project outside of the Electric Six, he gave us a mellodious new-wave dashed ballad about "leaving..." and now, collaborating with NY-based songwriter Jesse Paris Smith (daughter of Patti), he's singing about trying to get "(Out of) The Neighborhood..."

So goes the first single from this new band, Belle Ghoul (via Five Three Dial Tone Records).

It's a dazzling, space-pop strut; the punchy brass feels like the last humid hurrah of summer (just in time for this month's equinox). This song breaks out from the get go with an irresistably hand-clappable beat and sun-burst guitars strumming out their simple tinny purrs, while organs and pianos together ringing-round-the-rosey. Tait's vocals, marked with a mid-low charm somewhere between Costello and Richman, are complimented by Smith's airy back-ups, both lightly layered with a sheen of fuzz like a just-barely-tuned-in AM Pop station...

(E6's Zach Shipps produced these two ditties, with its B-Side diverging away from pop and into an ambient, autumanal, trippy traipse).

(Modern Music listeners likely heard this a few days ago). (You'll be able to find some hard copies in October.)