Henry and the Nightcrawlers
Henry and the Nightcrawlers (Independent)

Henry and the Nightcrawlers have yet to establish their name in the Vancouver scene, but if you’re a follower of local music, chances are you’ve already encountered nearly all of the group’s members. Until recently, frontman Henry Alcock-White played guitar for Bend Sinister, and his backing band includes members of Said the Whale and the Zolas.

As you’d expect from this cast of collaborators, the Nightcrawlers’ debut EP offers five tracks of bouncy pop-rock, with plenty of thumping pianos and quirky vocal harmonies. There’s a faint undercurrent of ska to the nerd-rocking “Daytime Friend”, which evokes a foul-mouthed Elvis Costello with its wry complaint, “I am only your friend in the daytime/At night you just fuck off.” Elsewhere, the band makes an unexpected venture into folk-disco with “On a Week Night”, pairing a canned drum loop with acoustic-guitar campfire riffs and a disorienting structure that twists and turns over five minutes. This off-kilter charm is typical of the disc, which features several snippets of background studio chatter and instrumental noodling, despite having a run time that’s under 20 minutes.

There isn’t a dud in the bunch, although there’s no bona fide gobsmacker either, as the band has yet to produce anything as enduring as its associated acts. As a primer EP, however, this gives plenty of reasons to expect great things from Henry and the Nightcrawlers in the future. And if the slew of non-album tracks already uploaded to the group’s MySpace page is any indication, that could come sooner rather than later.

Download This: “Daytime Friend”