HARD LESSONS, B&G Sides Volume 1 (Quack, 2007)
Listen: “See And Be Scene”

Freshly signed to Ann Arbor-based media empire Quack! and coming off another round of successful touring — if you ever caught a gig of theirs in your town, you remember it — the Hard Lessons have issued B&G Sides Vol. 1. And as the title suggests it’s the first of three EPs in a series, so its relative lightness at three tracks is a little easier to take.

“See And be Scene” is the shining dollar sign moment here, the song that the Lessons should be performing on the VMAs in a kids-only VIP room alongside Rihanna, Gym Class Heroes, and Taylor Swift. In a youth-gone-wild entertainment industry, “Scene” represents every ounce of hyperactivity, soul, fire, and max R&B-inspired bottom end that the Detroit trio has been selling since leaping into the fray over four years ago. It nails that incomprehensible trick of the pop song, that ability to make kids want to hump (or at least dance) and the rest of us smile at the resilience of youth’s reckless abandon, and it is a hit waiting to happen.

The Hard Lessons back that up with “The Painter” and “Don’t Shake My Tree,” which feature vocalist-guitarist Augie V and vocalist-organist Koko taking respective leads. And if “Scene” illustrates their crowd-inspiring, windmill-guitaring best, “Painter” and “Tree” parse the trio’s talents into threes: Augie’s inspired man-boy contemplation, Koko’s flawlessly soulful shout, and instrumentation that crackles like an overloaded power strip. The trio doesn’t quite nail it all the time — there are multiple guitar solos at the end of “Tree,” and it really only needs one — but if B&G and its follow-up EPs are where they learn a little patience, then the fuse on the bomb of a Hard Lessons full-length to come is already lit. — Johnny Loftus

Tags: The Hard Lessons, B&G Sides, Quack, Augie, Koko