Watch: Hoyotoho -- "Virgin Eyes"

Later this month, on the 29th, new-ish local electro-rock outfit Hoyotoho will release its debut album, Brutal Beauty. Check out the flashy, above Matthew Cooper-directed music video that's been made for lead single, "Virgin Eyes." It's a good-looking clip, no doubt, and frontman Calvin Chynoweth and his band of merry pranksters certainly boasts an interesting aesthetic, even if the one time I tried to catch the band at the Double Wide, it blew out the sound system and Chynoweth was forced to resort to calming the crowd with a surprising amount of '60s pop covers he had ready to go. It was something of a disaster, albeit a relatively charming one.

But that's kind of giving Hoyotoho a short shrift, and an unfair one, too. Plenty of area DJ fans are already familiar with Chynoweth, who for the past year or so (if not longer) has been out and about performing a fair share of DJ gigs under the Hoyotoho name around town, building up the brand name. To this point, that angle's offered up with a little more regularity than the full band's live shows, although I'd think it's a safe bet to say that, with the new album's release imminent, we can expect a change in philosophy. And having heard some of the MGMT-meets-Ratatat vibes of Hoyotoho's earliest days, I think there'll be some intriguing elements at play in the rest of Brutal Beauty's contents, even if these days the band's aim appears more along a sleazy, grimey route.