For their self-titled debut LP, Australia’s Twerps embrace the musical antecedents of that region — Aussie bands like Go-Betweens and The Church, and the Kiwi Dunedin Sound championed by Flying Nun Records (based out of Christchurch, actually) and Xpressway — as well as the band’s contemporaries.

Twerps is a collection of eleven simple and endearing pop songs. On the sing-along track, “Who Are You,” perhaps a nod to the pub-rock scene popularized in the 1980s, the band is joined by members of Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Beaches, and Panel of Judges all chorusing, “We’ll get drunk/ We’ll get stoned/ We’ll get high/We’ll get…” The album’s folky centerpiece, “Bring Me Down,” was co-written by Eddy Current’s Brendan Huntley and vocalist/guitarist Marty Frawley, who sounds a lot like his dad here, the late Maurice Frawley of Working Class Ringos and a handful of other bands, and who also played guitar for Paul Kelly and the Dots.

Between their new album on Underwater Peoples in the US, supporting Robert Forster from the Go-Betweens, a tour with Real Estate, shows at SXSW, and a performance on WFMU, Twerps are experiencing a bit of well-deserved success. In a weird reflection of that, Jessica Alba of all people name-dropped the band in a tweet to her more than 2 million (most likely confused) followers.

See Twerps’ SF show with layered and lush pop songsters Real Estate and locals Melted Toys at the Great American Music Hall tonight.

Real Estate, Twerps, Melted Toys
Great American Music Hall
April 24, 2012
8pm, $17