Cute Band Alert!

When I took a jaded, cynical out-of-town friend to see the Carrots at Cheapo Discs during SXSW, his eyes lit up for the first time all week: "A lot of bands are trying to do this, but they're really doing it," he said.

"This" is Sixties girl-group pop, complete with melodies, hand claps, songs about dead teenagers, and matching outfits. The harmonies are surprisingly good, made even more impressive by the fact that three Carrots are in the scream/thrash quartet Finally Punk.

When they're not re-enacting a graphic Care Bear cannibal play or finding God, the six Carrots - also counting members of Yellow Fever and the Old-Timerz - climb the genre ably, flawlessly covering the Shangri-Las and nearly sounding better. So why girl-group songs? Their longtime manager, Jimmy Don Kray, spoke on their behalf:

“A) They are amazing pop masterpieces. B) They are fun to perform. C) For the most part they are not sacrilegious, at least to Christians. D) The world is full of boy-group songs already. E) We do not have the technology to leave the world at this point so we are trying to do something about point D.”

Swoon over the Carrots tonight at Beerland as DJ Sue turns back the clock, and pick up the debut issue of their fan-club magazine, Carrot Talk!