This week’s featured band, Oakland’s The Hot Toddies had us immediately hooked with their excellent debut EP. Since we didn’t know anything about the band ahead of time, we were a bit blindsided by the band’s sweet melodies and tight indie pop-rock sound which grounded their wry lyrics covering sex, love, and cars, among other topics. Unlike a lot of stuff we hear, it felt genuinely fun.

The band’s debut full length album, titled Smell the Mitten, meets the expectations set by the EP and singificantly one-ups it. The same great elements are there–the vocal melodies, tight songwriting, and funny and sweet lyrics–but they’re joined by a more full production sound and some instrument experimentation. As a result, Smell the Mitten is really terrific, an exciting album that should bring The Hot Toddies further well-deserved attention.

As they told us during the interview, The Hot Toddies write songs in what seems like an almost effortless manner, inspired by their experiences and a desire to continually develop and expand their sound. In addition to the interview, we’ve got four songs from Smell the Mitten in the episode.

Catch the Toddies next live performance next week:

Thursday, August 23rd
The Rickshaw Stop
w/ Get Set Go and The Attachments
8pm, $8

The band will also be live in-studio at KALX on Saturday, August 18th at 9pm.

After the Rickshaw Stop show, The Hot Toddies head on a Pacific Northwest tour. You can find all of the dates at their MySpace page, where you can also pick up Smell the Mitten, out now on Asian Man Records.