Kevin Bronson on February 26th, 2013

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The most telling moment in the video for the Bleached single “Next Stop” arrives at the close, when all the fun and frolicking is sealed with a wink. Certain viewers might regard that as harmlessly flirtatious; here, we read into it a subtle acknowledgement of the past. Sisters Jennifer and Jessie Clavin have stepped back from their more frenetic roots in the beloved but short-lived Mika Miko to do some gene-splicing. Bleached’s debut “Ride Your Heart” (due April 2 via Dead Oceans) recombines the DNA of the likes of the Primitives and Nikki & the Corvettes and Black Tambourine and Bratmobile and the Pandoras (hey, there’s a good playlist to be made there) to yield a catchy and currently fashionable strain of pop. One of the sisters’ early singles on Suicide Squeeze was titled “Searching Through the Past,” – ostensibly about a lost love, of course – and at the very least “Ride Your Heart” makes for great soundtrack to rifling through your parents’ 1978 fanzines.

||| Live: Bleached plays March 22 as part of Burgerama II at the Observatory.