I apologize for the inconvenience, but I'm going to have to insist that you all go give Karmella's Game a listen. Catherine and I saw them with Scott and Lori a couple of years ago — I think they were opening for Full Minute of Mercury at the Velvet Lounge. We were instantly charmed.

Squealing synths, endless energy and raucous harmonies — they're the greatest eighties band that never existed. I bought their EP, which was pretty good for listening and downright excellent for running, then occasionally checked in with their ridiculous/awesome/ridiculously awesome Flash website. But I didn't see any new recordings, and on the occasions when they came back to DC I was usually out of town. They're from Baltimore. It's a world away.

But hey, it appears that they've finally recorded a full-length (albeit one with only 9 songs). Looks like it's been out for about two months, but I just bought it a week or so ago. And it's pretty great. Maybe a little too relentlessly energetic to qualify as an album of the summer — but given what I now consider to be a deeply illegitimate Phoenix AoTS reign-by-default, I'm prepared to nominate it anyway.

Unfortunately, they haven't made any of the new LP available as mp3s. You can listen to two songs off of the EP here:

• Coming Going Leaving
• Not The End

But you'll have to visit their Myspace page to hear stuff from their latest release ("Diversions", "A Lullabye"). And you really should: it's got better production, better songwriting, and hooks crammed into every available nook and cranny. If sugar-rush synth-pop isn't your thing, don't bother. If it is, enjoy.