Miniature Tigers

If you combined Elvis Costello's pop sensibility with the White Stripes' early, stripped-down sound and Weezer's geek chic, you'd have something like Los Angeles indie trio Miniature Tigers. Sans bassist, the group's songs tend to hang on the high end, but with all the colorful jangle and grit of garage rock. Miniature Tigers' latest studio effort, a pair of EPs titled Black Magic and White Magic (scheduled for release March 4 on Modern Art Records), shows the band's diversity, as they move from the raw dance rock on Black Magic to more ethereal, dreamy pop with keys and synths on White Magic. Both EPs contain the kind of catchy concoctions that've made the band buzz-worthy. Plus, all three of the guys in the band are relatively good-looking — and smooth, too, if lines like "I kissed you on the neck and you got wet" ("The Wolf") have any truth to them.