Kevin Bronson on April 17th, 2014

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It figures, with 20-year anniversaries and all, that there are odes to 1994 cropping up everywhere. It was arguably the peak of the “alternative rock” thing, and both influential chart-topping bands and underground acts were performing at their height. One nod to that year comes by way of L.A. duo of Dan Crane and Amanda Walker, doing business as Ray & Remora. Their six-song “1994” EP, due May 6 via L.A. imprint Aeronaut Records, spins some indie favorites from that year into shimmering electro-pop. Yes, that might cause some purists to cringe, but Crane and Walker have pulled it off with TLC – Superchunk’s “Like a Fool,” Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So,” Sebadoh’s “Skull,” Dinosaur Jr.’s “Feel the Pain” (the gem of the bunch), Guided by Voices’ “The Goldenheart Mountaintop Queen Directory” and, below, Pavement’s “Gold Soundz.” The collaboration began with the Superchunk cover before Walker, who performs under the name Glen Parks and has a solo album coming later this year, and Crane decided to embark on more. Crane, of course, is a creative changeling who’s been in faux-French bands Les Sans Culottes and then its spinoff, Nous Non Plus; played with the ukulele-driven trio the Quick Hellos; toiled as a freelance journalist; and is the personality behind World Air Guitar legend Bjorn Turoque. Say it ain’t so? It’s so, and it’s OK.

||| Download: “Gold Soundz”