Cheap Girls

Giant Orange (Rise)

Get ready for one more round of Midwestern scruff-rock by beer light. Taking cues from the Replacements, Guided By Voices, and Sugar, Cheap Girls cover familiar insouciance without getting lost in the past. The Lansing, Mich., trio’s third album seethes with warm tube amp crunch, but hints of transistor pop aspiration abound, with the overall mood of Giant Orange vacillating between wistful and resolute. Hooky opener “Gone All Summer” sets the tone when bassist/vocalist Ian Graham upends Oscar Wilde by singing, “While you’re off somewhere else high on animal drugs/It’s amazing all the things we’ll find on the ground.” Graham’s everyman voice isn’t for radio, but like his torn flannel forbearers, he makes the most of it; especially true on the acoustic bare-all “Cored To Empty.” (Sun., Black stage, 12:20pm)

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This article appears in November 2 • 2012.

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Greg Beets was born in Lubbock on the day Richard Nixon was elected president. He has covered music for the Chronicle since 1992, writing about everyone from Roky Erickson to Yanni. Beets has also written for Billboard,Uncut, Blurt, Elmore, and Pop Culture Press. Before his digestive tract cried uncle, he co-published Hey! Hey! Buffet!, an award-winning fanzine about all-you-can-eat buffets.