The Happy Bullets

Seeing that The Happy Bullets have been a part of the Dallas-area music scene since 2003, it's odd that more folks haven't discovered the band's many charms. Then again, it's been five years since Jason Roberts and his merry crew unleashed any new music. It's kind of hard to discover what's not there.

Thankfully, the band's new EP, Hydropanic at the Natatorium, has hit the streets (in a very limited vinyl release that also comes with a comic book) and the effort is good enough to bring some much-deserved attention to The Happy Bullets once again.

With its wistful intro, "People in Charge" begins the EP beautifully. Psychedelic and symphonic, the song is the kind of indie-pop the late great Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse used to dream up. The rest of the EP holds up just as well; songs such as "Sundowner" and "Mr. Popular" fuse prime-era XTC with the more modern concerns of folks like The Decemberists and Of Montreal.

At just five songs, the EP does its job almost too well. Listeners will no doubt want to hear more. Perhaps someone can give the group a bit of a budget and they can record a full-length to build on the success of this nearly perfect EP.