Video Find: The Cute Lepers

"Equally influenced by first wave punk, mod - revival, power pop, and a retarded reverence for Johnny Thunders" is how The Cute Lepers describe themselves on their Facebook and Myspace pages, I found this band to be a wonderful breath of fresh air, taking all the little bits of music I enjoy and mixing it together. Their guitars are raw, and rock, their songs are pop and memorable, and their is an attitude to it that seems to have been lost in a lot of punk music since the 70s. They hail from Seattle, Washington and come from the ashes of The Briefs.

I recently discovered this great band while I was in LA. I was driving for days, which is the typically miserable lifestyle of a California native, but I was fortunate in that my rental car came equipped with Sirius Satellite Radio. I found myself listening mostly to Little Steven's Underground Garage. Over the span of about 4 days, I found myself hearing at least 5 different songs from their recently released album Can't Stand Modern Music. It made my travels not seem as bad. I was able to pick up the record, and was pleasantly satisfied that the album was great even beyond the five songs I had heard. Even more than that, I was so excited that they covered Opening Up by late 70s English Mod-Revival band The Circles. I love love this cut and have also wanted to play a version of it for years. Their version is wonderful, as is their album. It appears you can still order their album on Pink Vinyl here, so check it out, and also check out the original MP3 from The Cirlces below. Hopefully we'll have more to come with The Cute Lepers in the near future.

MP3: The Circles-Opening Up