Ahoy, mate (from Humboldt Park)

Frigates, recently out of Humboldt Park, like the words "compact" and "staccato" to describe their style of bass/drums/clean guitar punch; those are about as good as any adjectives in my bag. Evidently, they've been in the studio recently. There's only one track on the MySpace site with a little studio polish, the catchy "Damage and Liability", which has an undeniably likable Talking Heads thing going on. (Eno, Bowie and David Fripp all get shoutouts in their Influences section, but no Heads. Hrmph.) The other two tracks sound an awful lot like rehearsal takes - boxy acoustics and no audible vocals to speak of - but they're good rehearsal takes, and suggest some serious live show promise. There's plenty of energy here, and it's hard to go wrong with catchy guitars and smashing drums. Frigates plays Ronny's, Thursday 11/13 at 9pm with Story of the Sea and Mako Sica; Edie Sedgwick (Dischord) headlines. Frigates will also appear live in the WHPK studios on Pure Hype, Friday at 9pm.