Endless Mittens

“I consider Mittens to be pop rock,” says guitarist Paul Ryu. “When we started, we were mostly indie pop, but then we absorbed a lot of other styles, too. We tend to process a lot of our influences through a ’50s-’90s filter; ’50s in terms of how we write melodies and harmonies, and ’90s in terms of how we sound with arrangements and dynamics.”

Ryu (formerly from Kansas and then NYC) joined the band’s cofounding duo Lia Dearborn (a college-degreed painter who used to take cello lessons) and Ramona McCarthy (an attorney who describes their music as “pop rock meets doo-wop”) shortly after they formed in 2009, accompanied since February by Grizzly Business drummer Matthew Burke. They’re about to drop their sophomore full-length, Endlessly. “This album, just like our last, is all DIY,” says Dearborn, “recorded in various living rooms and our practice studio and produced and engineered by Paul and his cats.”

The release party for Endlessly happens November 4 at Bar Pink. “Our wicked talented friends, the Hiroshima Mockingbirds and the Strawberry Moons, will be joining us,” says McCarthy, “along with U.K.’s Ramona Flowers, who’ll be opening the show. The night will be filled with rock, pop, and dance music.” The same venue recently hosted the band’s fifth birthday party. “Ramona’s dress ripped towards the end of the set. She was embarrassed, but the crowd cheered. So, rock on?”

Mittens appears at the Casbah on October 6 for Liz-Fest, a breast-cancer-awareness benefit honoring Chica Diabla’s late singer that also features the Touchies and reunions of Call Me Alice, Whole Hog, and Chamber Sixx. After that, “We’re working on a music video for at least two of our songs from the latest album,” says Dearborn. “We also have about a dozen new songs to work on.”