Reading Rainbow

Next to Reading Rainbow, other minimalist pop bands look a tad like ELO. Well, maybe it’s not that extreme, but this Philly guitar-and-drums duo makes slightly noisy lo-fi pop with so little gear they could tour in a hatchback. Though the live setup could barely get smaller, the sound is full, poppy and driving. Sarah Everton stands behind a floor tom and a snare, and Rob Garcia fills the remaining space with guitar lines that sound simple at first, but can actually be a bit complex. The vocals wander between close harmonies and imperfect unison, infusing the music with an appropriate dose of disorienting swirl. It’s impressive for such a minimal band to recall such noisy monsters as Sonic Youth, but Reading Rainbow’s noise-pop implies the Kim Gordon approach to art-school rock.

The 12 lo-fi love jams on Prism Eyes, the band’s 2010 sophomore release, are tender and danceable. Tracks like the mysterious “Animals Take Control of Me” or “Let’s Dream Tonight” take a few steps back from basement-shaking noise pop. The latter, like several songs on Prism Eyes, is a love song the band sings to itself. With many married duos, these peeks inside the workings of the relationship can be cloying or tiresome, but Reading Rainbow’s noise contrasts the content nicely. The band shares a DIY aesthetic with catchy lo-fi-ers like Times New Viking, Dum Dum Girls and even early Vivian Girls. But the shamelessly self-taught Reading Rainbow stays largely positive, producing realistic music where romance is balanced by grit. —Corbie Hill