The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - S.T (2009)

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The Guardian - New band of the day

Hometown: New York.

The lineup: Peggy Wang (keyboards, vocals), Kip Berman (guitar, vocals), Kurt Feldman (drums), Alex Naidus (bass).

The background: If New York is becoming synonymous with blisstabulous electronic psychedelia and rocked-up disco, it's also now a haven for nugazers and bands whose members may well have been conceived to the feeble rumble (a compliment, sort of) of NME's C86 cassette the way their parents propagated to Barry White and Isaac Hayes. School of Seven Bells, Vivian Girls, Crystal Stilts and now the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, New Yorkers all, are doing their best to keep the spirit of mid-80s to early-90s – that is, the period between synth pop/new pop and Britpop – indie alive.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – their very name sounds like a manifesto, a statement of intent, a pledge to be true to the idea of being, well, true, honest and untarnished by adult concerns as purveyed by the C86 faithful with their undersized school duffel coats, anoraks, Alice bands and mum-just-cut-my-hair fringes (yeah, yeah, and that was just Stephen Pastel). Pale-boy/wan-girl vocals that tend to go "woo-ooh-ooh"? Check. A light wash of feedback? Check. Fuzztone guitars, plip-plop bass and drums like a child bashing a tin of sweets with a stick? Check. Production that sounds like it comes courtesy of Phil Spector reborn as a ginger Glaswegian punk with a bad case of I Love 1966 (say, Alan McGee)? Check, check, check. Check shirts? Probably.

But what to call it? C86 Revisited? Shoegazing with a pop sensibility? One thing's for sure. "It's not emo", says TPOBPAH's drummer Kip Feldman, "it's "tweemo". As much as anyone, they recall My Bloody Valentine, but not the Isn't Anything/Loveless-era noiseniks responsible, along with Sonic Youth, for the "reinvention of the guitar". Rather they remind us of MBV before their miraculous transformation, when they were ridiculed exponents of saccharine jangle-pop circa Strawberry Wine, or the Mary Chain if they'd been more shy than surly. They formed last year to play a gig for singer Peggy Wang's birthday party, where they had cakes with pink icing and jelly tots and everything, in a Brooklyn warehouse, where they performed five songs with four chords in 10 minutes. Today, they've got a whole satchel's worth of songs about long-distance relationships, teenage trauma, and sex in libraries. Oh, and one called Kurt Cobain's Cardigan. They worship at the altar of Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque, their greatest moment to date was seeing two ex-members of the Flatmates at one of their British gigs, they're touring with the Wedding Present, who they refer to as "the Weddoes" and consider to be "legendary", they make the Field Mice sound hard, and they've been described by one journalist as "like riding your bicycle to your friend's house after you've finished your homework". Are you scared to get happy?

The buzz: "Possibly the lushest piece of noise-pop to come out of the Big Apple in 2008, if not the US."

The truth: In lyrics such as, "We are so sure/We will never die, no no, we will never die", they express a strange kind of defiance and terminal belief in the enduring power of cutie indie.

Most likely to: Make a pilgrimage to Bristol, the home of Sarah Records.

Least likely to: Grow up.

What to buy: Their self-titled debut album is released by Fortuna POP! on February 9 2009. The band play The Forum with the Wedding Present on December 18.

File next to: Crystal Stilts, Vivian Girls, My Bloody Valentine, the Pastels.