SAN DIEGO CITY BEAT

The Lashes: Get It
(Red Ink/Columbia)
Goes Well With: Weezer, The Cars, Pixies

One of the things to unabashedly enjoy about what we might call the post-garage pop renaissance of 2006, is how supra-indie bands have stripped the dour punk dogma off the ’90s and replaced it with a hopeful, pogoing freedom of arrangement. It’s as if bands like Stiff Little Fingers, The Knack and Pixies are guiding the pens of kids who’ve thankfully come of age without going through the awkward, intensely ironic phase.

Case in point: The Lashes’ major-label debut, appropriately titled Get It. By mixing a shamelessly ’80s worship of The Cars and The Cure with a millennial pop flair for major chords and layers of ProTools enhancements, the sextet has crafted a solid, unpretentiously pop record. Singles and album epics are intertwined among the 11 tracks.

Sure, sometimes the ’80s keyboards sound as outta sorts as a keytar at a hoedown. But more often the effect is as comforting as arena rock on your car radio, and as goofily personal as a love letter text-messaged over your cell phone. “Sometimes the Sun,” already a local radio fave, is actually eclipsed by sweeter pop fare like “Please Please Please” and neo-Weezer knock off “A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody.” Visit www.thelashes.net.