CD Review: hey willpower, Playing Both Miami and West Palm, Jan. 16 and 17

Scottish indie rock act Bis' overtures were expressed rather neatly in its 1997 single "Tell It to the Kids": "And now, coming through the airwaves into your home/Introducing the new transistor heroes." San Francisco's hey willpower lacks a similar expressive salutation, but it shares Bis' affinity for trash culture, "kandy pop," and smug phrasing.

hey willpower eschews caps as much as it does any sense of adult maturity. The group's debut release, P.D.A., is full of enough lyrical piffle to convince you that chief songwriter Will Schwartz (who also plays in Imperial Teen) would draw just as much joy assembling a monkeys' tea party as he would pop songs. From "Magic Window": "With you my work is never done/Be there from Lent to Ramadan," or "I can make you scream/I'm better than a Krispy Kreme."

The six-piece outfit works within simple dance-pop parameters. The

dinky, ebullient melody of "Hundredaire" mimics the Wake's "Crush the

Flowers" or Outkast's "Hey Ya!" Off the Wall--era Michael Jackson is

hinted at in the disco textures and breathy background vocals of "Not

Trippin'." Electronic musician Tomo Yasuda ensures that P.D.A.'s bass

throbs and that its rhythms titillate, but any carnal dancefloor

tension is quickly sapped by Schwartz, whose preteen sex metaphors rank

somewhere between trip-hop artist Earthling and Paul Stanley of Kiss.

Immaturity isn't necessarily a sin, but when it's used to mask the fact

that you have nothing interesting to say ... well, that's a strike

against any new transistor hero.

Friday, January 16, the

8 p.m.; tickets cost $8. Ages 18+ with ID. 561-832-9999; www.respectablestreet.com.

-- Ryan Foley