THE BEETS

Explaining what the Beets are not is easy. They’ve got nothing to do with PETA, the raw food movement, or the animated quartet featured on the TV show Doug. But getting at what, exactly, they are is a bit more difficult.

The New York City-based band's brand of woozy ‘60s rock might have something to do with it; it manages to be both messy and completely controlled at the same time. The trio sounds like a pack of drunk rats singing along to The Modern Lovers, plays like a preppy version of the Velvet Underground, and looks like the boys of the Wonders after they pulled an all-nighter. (The Beets even have their very own Shades.)

And though most of the songs on their debut album, Spit In The Face Of People Who Don’t Want To Be Cool, barely clock in at two minutes, they’re unbelievably catchy. “I Think I Might’ve Built a Horse” features a sing-along chorus, “For You” is their version of a feedback-heavy lullaby, and “Cold Lips” chugs along like it was made to be played on repeat on your record player.

Which, up until now, was your only option. But the Beets just released their album digitally, via emusic.com, so you can listen to it on your way to a bar—or, more fittingly, as you stumble home after.