Kevin Bronson on August 1st, 2013

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Dear Boy, the new L.A. quartet fronted by singer-guitarist Ben Grey, wraps its post-punk influences in pop sheen. If Grey isn’t the poster boy for romantic longing – as director Baley Wynn’s slick video for the first single “Oh So Quiet” suggests – he is at least a worthy spokesman, and Grey will probably have more to say when Dear Boy’s self-titled EP comes out in September. Grey and bandmates Austin Hayman (guitar), Nils Bue (bass) and Keith Cooper (drummer) worked on the EP in London; it was recorded with Chad Bamford (Spiritualized), mixed by Michael Patterson (Trent Reznor, BRMC) and mastered by Mike Marsh (Pulp, Phoenix, Savages). That’s quite a supporting cast, of course, for a leading man seemingly ready to take Dear Boy (named for the Paul & Linda McCartney song, we trust) somewhere special.

||| Live: Dear Boy opens for Kitten on Friday night at the Troubadour and plays Mondays in September at the Bootleg Bar.