From Bobby Dylan to Bon Iver, retreating to the woods has been a reliable way for serious white boys with guitars to recharge their creative batteries. Turns out that it wasn't a bad idea for the determinedly unserious Seattle five-piece Natalie Portman's Shaved Head, either. Earlier this year, the members of NPSH shacked up on Whidbey Island for roughly a week of brainstorming.

“We actually came out of that with five or six songs,” guitarist David Price tells the Straight, calling from the band's rehearsal space. “We'd all get up, make breakfast for each other, and say, ”˜All right, what are we working on today?' We had this little studio set up, it was freezing outside, and at night we'd make fires and eat s'mores. It was really fun.”

Any comparison to For Emma, Forever Ago ends there. If the band's name didn't clue you in, a mashup of electro, pop, new wave, and synthetic '80s chart sounds, augmented by goofy lyrics about beard maintenance and other Net-generation concerns puts Natalie Portman's Shaved Head on the flippant side of things. And to pretty great effect, too, on the band's 2008 debut, Glistening Pleasure.

A chunky, one-and-a-half-minute synth-bomb called “Sophisticated Side Ponytail” is the breakout hit, but Glistening Pleasure is more likable than your average retro smirk-job. Even as it's forcing a collision between Lipps Inc. and Animotion for “Slow Motion Tag Team”, or declaring that “Iceage Babeland” is a “nice place for a hot band”, NPSH avoids burdening the irony with too much cynicism or detachment, probably thanks to the band's youth. Fittingly, the 21-year-old Price is a thoughtful and positive spokesman.

“There are road bumps,” he says, “but one of the great things is that we all started out as friends. I think maybe it's easier than it could have been, because we're all out to support each other, and we've surrounded ourselves with smart people that are out to do this right.”

Price also agrees that NPSH is still figuring out how to reconcile its role as party-starter on tours with CSS, the Faint, and Lily Allen, and its developing grip on the act of making music. “It all started because we couldn't play our instruments,” Price explains, “So we said, ”˜Let's just have fun up there.' Then we got better at playing, and all of a sudden we missed jumping around and interacting with the audience.”

If these two sides of NPSH are integrated anywhere, it's on album tracks like “Hush Hush”, the compact tale of a high-school Black Widow given a striking, mellifluous guitar break. But as Price politely insists, fun is always NPSH's primary directive.

“We want to make great music,” he says, “but at the same time, you can't take yourself too seriously—in anything, but particularly in the music industry, because you start to get locked into these cycles where you end up putting out bad music. You just gotta keep this lightheartedness about it all.”

Natalie Portman's Shaved Head plays the Media Club on Tuesday (July 7).