Brief, Live: Pow Wow!; Permanent Records, 05.15.09

So: buoyed by some fine press and an interest in good pop music, I headed to Permanent Records last Friday to take in an in-store from Pow Wow!, whose New-Jersey-to-Brooklyn transition was one to which I could relate. I entered a song or two into their set, and immediately liked what I heard: organ- and bass-driven pop songs, energetically played. My initial thought was “the K Records version of Get Happy!!“; thinking back on it later, I’d tend to agree with the second part of that, but would shift my indie-oriented point of reference to something closer to Chisel’s Set You Free. Either way, I liked what I heard; not revolutionary, but well-played pop songs and a sound that could evolve in a number of interesting directions.