SeepeopleS just released an EP called “Love.” It’s exploratory indie rock with pretty harmonies, subdued but not sleepy. The new stuff might bring to mind Rogue Wave and Bright Eyes, bands that can do sad candor and emotional nakedness but who rescue it with enough self-awareness to keep the exercise from seeming miserable and wanky. Not to put you off of the band, but its members seem like they might be really smart literary types, too.
The band’s 2015 record “The Dead Souls Sessions” has songs that reference Huxley and Gogol. The five-piece band from Portland, Maine, takes its eclecticism seriously. The band can play a creaky circus waltz, but it might slide into some psychedelic electronica-ish songs with synthetic beats.
SeepeopleS makes idiosyncratic music but has more than just quirk going for it. The textures and layers don’t fully obscure the catchiness at the heart of many of the band’s songs.
SeepeopleS play the Arch Street Tavern, Arch St., Hartford, Friday, Sept. 16, at 9 p.m. $7 to $10. 860-246-7610 or archstreettavern.com.
