Children’s hardcore? Two-minute sturm und pogos, a 25-minute full-length, and obvious pit provocation (“Rock & Roll 2 Me”): Check, check, and double body check! Gene Davis (vox/guitar), Simon Flory (bass, banjo), and Jody Suarez (beat of a different drum) nearly caused a kiddie riot at Mueller recently in a free summertime concert for KUTX, and sophomore LP Meet You by the Moon bottles the tot mosh. Vocals flat and foreground like Johns Flansburgh and Linnell pay baseline fealty to They Might Be Giants, front and center in the numeric wordplay of “Common Denominator” (“I used to be in love with a girl named number three/ Two added to one was just enough for me”), which pairs percussive piano with a British Invasion kit knocking. “Obla Dobla De” riffs similarly, while “Helen Eileen” – if slowed – would become a balladic waltz evocative of Elliott Smith. Ditto for the chamber finesse of “Saturday Morning,” while fiddle and marimba-like accents take “Jim the Giant” for a hayride. “Pet Alligator” snaps a kick drum/xylophone head bang.

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This article appears in August 5 • 2016.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.