Band of the Month - Pop Lolita

by Andrews Feigenbaum on 06.02.2010

If Tufty likes you, you’re probably pretty damn good. Pop Lolita took the Indianapolis music scene by storm in 2000 and with their candied pop sound, quickly won him over and essentially became Radio Radio’s house band. Within a few months, the band found themselves being booked at clubs and bars all over Indianapolis, and in support of their sophomore album, “Smoke Rings and Halos” began touring the Midwest.

“Smoke Rings and Halos” received much critical acclaim, and as a result, Pop Lolita found themselves in the spotlight playing the Pop Overthrow Festival in Chicago and Los Angeles. Amber Lynch recalls that the trip had an eerie vibe the entire time. They played a show at Tower Records where a fake corpse on a gurney was right next to the stage. Jon Harmon, a habitual commando dresser, was demonstrating his stage presence with high energy kicks and split a pair of blue jeans in the crotch. Consequently, he had to borrow a pair of Amber’s jeans because he didn’t bring any other pairs on the trip- and that was just Chicago.

Wherever Pop Lolita went, the party joined them. In Los Angeles, the group stayed at the infamous Best Western where Vince Vaughn tells Jon Favreau, “You’re fuckin’ money, Mikey, fuckin’ money!” While they were lounging on the balcony of their room on the top floor, Andrew Mahoney (bass) and Pop Lolita’s other guitarist Mike Contreras noticed a rather attractive female. Lynch identified her as the actress Chloe Sevigny (who was there for the production of the movie “Brown Bunny”). Mahoney mustered up some courage and started talking to her, and the band found themselves over in her room shooting whiskey.

Cleveland was another beast altogether. Pop Lolita was playing a show at the Beachland Ballroom during Easter time. Harmon got mistaken for a woman, the band partied hard, Lynch had to be carried out of a Slovenian bar courtesy Jagermeister and Grey Goose. The rest was full of fuzzy details.

After tensions rose in the band due to various circumstances, Pop Lolita split up, but the itch to be on stage is back. This Friday, June 4, Pop Lolita is returning to the spotlight for a reunion show at the Vogue with encouragement from MFT family friends Andy and Annie Skinner of A2 Industries. Expect a wild show with musical guests America Owns the Moon, Downtown Struts and Neon Love Life. Pop Lolita will be bringing you all of their psychedelic, wall of high energy, glamorous liquid pop rock. If you haven’t heard them before, I’d draw comparisons to the Bengals, the Yeah, Yeah Yeahs, and a super dream pop Lou Reed post- Velvet Underground (with bitchin’ drums). I love the vox effects of Lynch’s vocals and the California surfer style clean, yet unrefined guitar strumming. The show at the Vogue will definitely be worth going to, but if you can’t catch Pop Lolita there, odds are Tufty will be bringing them back to Radio Radio.

DOWNLOAD THEIR RECORD ON MFT HERE - http://musicalfamilytree.com/band/pop_lolita