Kevin Bronson on December 23rd, 2014

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Veteran bar-hoppers might recognize Ken Franklin as a doorman, but hearing the first two songs from his band Dutch Party will make you wish you chatted him up some more. The quintet’s sprightly piano-based indie-pop is the soundtrack to a good mood, especially “Echo Girl,” an homage to the female denizens of Echo Park. Franklin had been working on his songs for a couple of years before teaming up with Silverfern Studios’ Matt Moore to begin recording an album – which, in turn, caught the interest of Ransom Music Group, the new venture from television personality Matte Babel. Dutch Party’s lineup now features singer-guitarist Franklin, guitarist Luke Paquin (Tashaki Miyaki, Hot Hot Heat), keyboardist Xander Burmer (The Real You), bassist Ben Eisen (Lovers & Poets/Shannon Hurley) and drummer Moore. The video for “Echo Girl,” meanwhile, is liable to make you bust out your dance moves even if you don’t have any – it features Vine personality Sione Maraschino (from Meghan Trainor’s video for the annoying “All About That Bass”) as a janitor who isn’t getting much work done. Infectious hardly gets more infectious.

||| Stream: “Echo Girl” and “Paper Moon”

||| Also: Watch the video for “Echo Girl” below: