Saturday, March 15   1:20 a.m.
Bourbon Rocks   (508 E 6th St)

  Minipop - Like I Do
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If there is such a thing as a "San Francisco sound," Minipop doesn't care about it. Perhaps that's what has allowed the local quartet to create a brand of starry-eyed pop that feels ethereal, uprooted from time and space. The band has gotten so much good press over the last year that they're comfortable with the frequent comparisons to Mazzy Star, the Sundays, and Eisley -- all inevitable references when trying to describe Minipop singer Tricia Kanne's honeyed voice.

The foursome has even been dubbed a female-fronted Coldplay, possibly for pairing beautiful melodies with driving beats. Certainly, Minipop recalls '90s shoegazer rock bands like Slowdive and Lush, in the way that they offer rich, hypnotic melodies in a sea of sound.

The group formed in 2004, when Matthew Swanson (guitar/keyboard) decided he wanted to steer from writing depressing tunes to concocting short, poppy songs. When he joined forces with Kanne, they began composing music inspired by the early '90s bands they had grown up with. Following the addition of Lauren Grubb (drums) and Nick Forte (bass), both fresh from other alternative-rock bands, Minipop settled into a moody and dreamy sound, something that Swanson calls "more therapeutic" than anything he had played before.

Over the past year, the group has signed to Take Root Records, released their eponymous debut album, and watched the video for the single "Like I Do" -- a journey through pages of a storybook that was favorably associated with an old Smashing Pumpkins video -- viewed more than 700,000 times on YouTube. During that time, Minipop embarked upon their first national tour , played shows with bands like Midlake, Cursive, Stellastarr**, Tokyo Police Club, Grizzly Bear etc. and appeared at SXSW, CMJ, Noise Pop, and San Francisco’s Llve 105 BFD festival. The ensemble also scored press in auspicious magazines like Nylon, Spin, Under the Radar, and Alternative Press, and got featured on such Internet sites as Yahoo Music, Amazon, and Rhapsody.