The cheeky swagger of Twin Peaks

From one mom’s basement to your ears: the four core members of Twin Peaks (nothing to do with the television series of the same name, they once told a reporter) know each other going back to elementary school in Chicago. They are front man Cadien Lake James, guitarist Clay Frankel, Jack Dolan on bass, and Connor Brodner on drums. The band firmed up and began playing dances and parties while the four were still in high school, which is the best time in one’s life to start making music, during the reign of hormones and teen angst and all. Their garage-punk found an eager audience. A DIY demo, recorded in a band member’s home, was picked up and distributed by an L.A. record label.

How? Why? Because Twin Peaks songs are built from the perfect arrangement of power chords and melodies, as faultless as anything made by the Rolling Stones during the 1960s, or by bands like the Pixies. And all of it delivered with a cheeky swagger, the kind perfected by Iggy Pop. Rock and roll that sounds as if made for the amusement of the band members and their fans, and not with the hopes of landing on a best-of Grey’s Anatomy soundtrack compilation.

Still, you’ll want to forgive Twin Peaks’ noticeable obsession with Exile on Main Street and the classic-rock genre in general. Humans are an imitative species, and every rock superstar, from Jimi Hendrix to Jimmy Page, clearly showed evidence of all those who came before them in the great pop-music pantheon. It’s how the torch gets passed in this business. Now and then Twin Peaks does get it wrong, possibly from indolence or inexperience or both, but when they get it right, their sound will bend, not break, your heart. Twin Peaks: I’m willing to wager that next time around, they won’t be the supporting act.

Wavves also performs.