Oberhofer

Oberhofer

Oberhofer, nom de band for Tacoma, Washington’s Brad Oberhofer and his Brooklyn mates, make bouncy, ear worming guitar pop. Like other Brooklynites, Oberhofer is flooding the market with too many 7″s on disparate labels to keep track of, in advance of an LP proper some time in the near future. “o0O0o0O0o,” which came out a bit earlier on 7″, has a cooing vocal intro that sounds like it could have been lifted from the Fleet Foxes’ folky world, but the rest of the song shows glimpses of African highlife guitars and achy indie rock. “The city’s feeling queer and crass/ With beer cans growing blades of grass/To look like something new,” Oberhofer sings. After a buzzy CMJ last year, the band has about a million club dates in the first months of 2011, ensuring they’ll be a big splash at March’s South By Southwest. What Oberhofer has most going for him is his distinctive voice, plaintive and capable of covering a lot of ground. On b-side “Don’t Need Ya,” a voguish cheap drum machine sets a dance-y tempo for the same pumping pop guitars as “o0O0o0O0o.” Look out for the “Away Frm U” / “Dead Girls Dance” 7″ this week.