The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Ponytail, Rabbit Rabbit. Staff Pick for indie show of the month! This Sunday at the Iron Horse at 8:30.

The buzz around the office increases every time one of us plays The Pains of Being Pure of Heart. "Who is that??!!" And it's not just within these walls. They were the big buzzband at last October's CMJ festival....or was that Passion Pit? Well, in either case, meet The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, a New York four-piece who plays sweet & noisy POP with boy/girl vocals, blissful melodies and blistering drums. The New York Times, a prominent newspaper, says "On its excellent self-titled debut album there’s a mild hauteur drawn from new wave, a thickness derived from shoegaze-pop and a pulse passed down from dance-punk. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart might paint within the lines, but they do so with panache… Warm on the outside, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart seethe with refreshingly mordant wit.”

Here are some bands The Pains of Being Pure at Heart really like (but maybe don’t sound quite like*): The Pastels, The Exploding Hearts, Black Tambourine/Velocity Girl, The Vaselines, The Ramones, Teenage Fanclub, My Bloody Valentine, Nirvana, Rocketship, Dear Nora. Pitchfork recently asked the band about a few of their favorite things with entertaining and educational results. *(sound a LOT like. Let's be honest. It's not a bad thing. )

But WAIT! There's MORE! This show is a co-headline with Ponytail! On the most basic level, Ponytail is an experimental band from Baltimore, Maryland, formed in 2005 by Jeremy Sigler as a class project. On a primal level, Ponytail is a gut punch of joy. Channeling Yoko Ono's yelps of yesteryear, Ponytail's Molly Siegel leads the band into a frenzied sonic psychedelia. In their glowing review of their album, Ice Cream Spiritual, Pitchfork noted: "It's hard to know how Siegel's approach might work if she were in another kind of band, but in Ponytail her voice fits perfectly." The band has thrived in the DIY scene in New York, but their roots lay in Baltimore.

But WAIT! There's MORE! If there was ever a local band born to be on this bill, it's Rabbit Rabbit. Lead singer Louise Chicoine has a guttural kinship with Ponytail's Molly but she also conjures post-punk icons like The Slits, The Bush Tetras, Delta 5, and even Philadelphia's Head Cheese. She moves from swirling banshee to whispery PJ Harvey-esque incantations while the band keeps the rock edgy and on the brink but fully together. When it works, it's cathartic.

Tickets here or at the door.