San Fransisco-based band Call and Response bring melodies that are sugar-sweet, but never saccharine

Photo courtesy Fanatic Promotions

Call and Response brings sunny delight to Tucson. The band is playing with the Sunshine Fix, 9 p.m at Solar Culture, 31 E. Toole Ave.

Music to make out to. Music to roller skate to. Music to eat ice cream to.

Consider Call and Response's self-titled debut the lost soundtrack to the summer where you fell in love with the girl or boy next door.

The band's music, which combines Mamas-and-the-Papas-style boy-girl vocal harmonies wrapped with catchy melodies, isn't exactly kids' stuff, though. Under the pretty sounds, are bass lines that owe more to hip-hop and funk than straight pop music. It's a sound that hard to describe, but easy to listen to and which will be even easier to listen to when Call and Response plays at 9 tonight at Solar Culture.

The band, which recently re-released their debut self-titled album on Emperor Norton records, will play with the Sunshine Fix at Solar Culture, 31 E. Toole Ave. The re-release of their record, originally out on Kindercore Records, means that even more people will be able to buy it.

"We had two new songs, and (that) gave us a change to work with (Mickey Petralia) and kind of add to the songs themselves. It was kind of a second chance at a record we already liked," Terri Loewenthal, who plays bass and sings, said. Petralia, who re-mixed Call and Response's album, has also produced bands such as Beck and the Butthole Surfers.

The resulting album was one that only requires one listening to know the songs; after that, the infectious melodies can pretty much be recalled by memory. About the record, US News and World Report said, "If the Jackson Five tour bus ran into a VW van-full of California trip-hop surfers they might resemble Call and Response." Their diverse sound can be attributed to their influences - the Zombies, Sly and the Family Stone, Nick Drake and Air. Their musical tastes are equally diverse.

"(On the road) we've been listening to the new Cornelius record, Simian and the Kings of Convenience," Loewenthal said. They have also been listening to Aliyah and JD, driving from show to show.

"We listen to a lot of hip-hop and R&B," she said.

Members themselves even have a hard time describing their sound.

"Futuristic humanistic," Loewenthal laughed, then after consulting other members, "soulful music with melodies and harmonies."

The melodies and harmonies come courtesy of each member's vocal contributions (they all sing) and interesting instrumentation; the five-member band adds wultizer, synths and moogs to their songs for the futuristic part. The humanist part could be their vocal harmonies or their songs' subject matter; two songs are called "Rollerskate" and "Blowin' Bubbles." The songs invoke the kind of shared childhood that seems most at home in a California suburb.

"Everybody is from California except for me," Loewnethal said. "Simone (Rubi) and Carrie (Clough) took piano lessons; they had the same piano teacher. Dan (Judd), Carrie and Simone all went to the same high school together."

Steve Eye, owner of Solar Culture, wanted Call and Response to come to Tucson because of their catchy California sound.

"I was delighted by the music of Call And Response the first time I heard them. It is fun, dynamic and exciting, said Eye. "Once you hear their songs, you will be happily singing them all day long."