Playbill

There has to be a place for the Starlight Mints. How many other bands will make "If you pull me apart, don't swallow my heart" (from "Submarine No. 3") the catchiest line you've heard in more than two weeks?

A five-piece outfit led by singer-guitarist Alan Vest, the Mints hail from Oklahoma, just like the Flaming Lips. If life were fair, the comparisons would end there, but anyone who's seen the Master P episode of Cribs knows life isn't fair. The Mints have even taken some heat -- in this publication, no less -- for touring with the very band from which they seek separation.

It's a shame, because the band's string-arrangement indulgences and unconventional chord changes actually owe as much to Belle and Sebastian as to anyone else, and Vest's vocal inflections are those of a lifelong Frank Black worshiper. They seem to idly pick up and put down several styles, often within the same song, before ultimately settling on a stilted, swaggering, '60s-era pop best exemplified in "The Twilight Showdown" and "Black Cat." Close your eyes and you can see a pack of mod swingers getting groovy during the intervals of Laugh-In or Get Smart.

8Track Charade, on the other hand, sounds like something that Hyde would turn the gang on to during a smoke break on That '70s Show. Plentiful electric pianos, courtesy of front man Gilbert Alfaro, create something of a Supertramp vibe in places, while elsewhere their Spanish-tinged psychedelic pop sounds something like Pink Floyd or Super Furry Animals with a trumpet player who escaped from the orchestra at a Madrid bullfight. A few of these guys -- and a lot of the material on their new, self-titled EP -- came from the late, lamented local band Spain Colored Orange, and that name is just as evocative of their sound as the new one, but for different reasons. At any rate, the stuff is catchy as hell -- a couple of weeks ago I listened to their EP before going to see Franz Ferdinand at the Verizon, and when I woke up the next day, it was the 8Track Charade's "Persistent Intermission" that was rattling around my rock-addled brain, not FF's "Tell Her Tonight." A great band and a perfect match for the Mints. -- Taylor Upchurch and John Nova Lomax

Thursday, September 30, at Mary Jane's Fat Cat, 4216 Washington Avenue, 713-869-5263.

Moving Units, with Kill Me Tomorrow and Chinese Stars

L.A.'s Moving Units never set out to lead a dance-punk revolution. Although they're often lumped in with like-minded bands from New York, such as the Rapture and Radio 4 -- and although they still can't shake the obvious comparisons to postpunk legends like Gang of Four and Television -- they claim they weren't consciously joining in the zeitgeist. Instead, the trio's focus has always been the frenzy on the dance floor. Front man Blake Miller's jagged guitar melodies skip across Johan Boegli's deep, funky bass lines and Chris Hathwell's irresistible disco drums, stirring up a lusty, rhythmic urgency that doesn't let up until the encore's over. Following their self-released 2001 EP with a debut full-length, Dangerous Dreams, due out in October, Moving Units live up to their name with a dizzying set of songs that demand nothing less than a no-holds-barred dance party. When they're performed live, that's exactly what fans can expect. -- Michele Laudig

Friday, October 1, at Mary Jane's Fat Cat, 4216 Washington Avenue, 713-869-5263.