The Charity Stripe Celebrates the Release Of Their Promising, Poppy Pink Corvette EP, Tonight at the High Dive

​Artist: The Charity Stripe
EP: Pink Corvette
Label: None
Release date: Today, July 29
Rating (Skip, Stream, or Buy): Stream
Local Show: The Charity Stripe's EP-release show is tonight at the High Dive with Key Note Speaker, and Facts About Funerals. The $6 show starts at 8 p.m.

The title track of The Charity Stripe's Pink Corvette EP is a bright, happy, pop single, with summer soundtrack potential. Like the rest of the self-released, five-song EP, the track is a bit rough around the edges and would take on new life were it a bit sharper, a little less cluttered, and washed through the commercial ringer. In fact, were there a reality show for producers/engineers to mix unsigned bands' rough recordings and make them famous, Pink Corvette would surely be a strong contender.

Ballard's Charity Stripe does evoke some thoughts of indie godfathers the New Pornographers -- you can hear it in the jangle, the triumph, and the hand claps. But they also owe a lot to softer, late-'90s alt-rock acts like Fastball, and bands that toed the line between adult contemporary and alt-rock. Charity Stripe, with their overly-affected vocals and noodly guitar lines, have one foot in adult and another in indie.

Thankfully, they're not mopey and they're not precious. They're a pop band that writes songs about finding love at the chop shop, "dashboard looks new/hubcaps look OK/gearshift is solid gold." They're the kind of band you want to root for.