The L.A. trio Behavior make vigorous alt-rock, though I don't suppose the kids use that term any more these days. This is indie in the Taylor Swift sense, a label that denotes something outside the mainstream but really fairly conventional. The group's newest album, Spirits & Embellishments, drops on Friday.
Opener here "The Thirsty Garden" is wiry stuff, while "My Ten Cents" is more languid and moderately funky. The cut is harmless in the Vampire Weekend sort of way, though "Cheap Dive" is more like a tune from The Strokes. If Behavior don't have quite the zest and street smarts of those folks, at least they are imbuing this somewhat sleek material with, if not bad intent, at least an approximation of it. Nothing here is incendiary, but on stuff like "Butterfly Kiss", a fairly successful roiling number, Behavior inject this with enough prefab vigor to make a listener get engaged.
Spirits & Embellishments is out on Post Present Medium on Friday.
More details on Behavior via the band's official website, or the band's official Facebook page.
[Photo: Taralyn Thomas]