Meet The Comfies.

The Comfies are a four-piece band out of Nashville who were formerly known as Harper, having been forced to change their name by this mean-looking dude from Australia. But to paraphrase Shakespeare, a Harper by any other name would sound as good, so the Comfies it is.

I recently came across these guys on the compilation Rich Creamy Paint and Friends, to which they contributed two tracks while still known as Harper. It was "Don't Waste My Time", a 5 1/2-minute mini-epic that starts as a piano-based ballad and builds into something more, which made me take notice and start digging around for more. This track kind of reminded me of Fresh Mowed Lawn, while their other contribution, "Mystery" is a rocking number a la Superdrag that clocks in at just over two minutes. So right off the bat I noticed their versatility.

Further investigation found that they're signed to Livewire Recordings, home of another similar band I featured recently, The Rewinds. They don't have an album released yet, but there are four new tracks that can be found at their myspace page, including the outstanding "Your Sunshine", "Ascent Summer" and "Good Example" (I can take or leave "Medicine"). The Superdrag part of their sound is more evident on the first two of these tracks, and since John Davis has found Jesus, this might be the closest you'll get to new SD music.

In the meantime, it'll be worth your while to pick that RCP & Friends disc, it's only $7.97 at CD Baby (plus it's part of their $5 sale if you buy two others eligible for it); the other contributors (RCP, The Foxymorons and Jetpack) are all bands I recommend as well. And when The Comfies actually release a proper CD, I'll be sure to note the event.

By the way, I hope they don't mind being featured on a blog called "Absolute Powerpop". Frontman Ben Harper (no, not that Ben Harper) has said:

I hate the word "power-pop." I don't want to be lumped in with Fountains of Wayne and stuff like that. I like to think that we're '60s-influenced modern indie rock. Sixties and '70s influences. The Beatles and early Bowie and things like that.

Hmmm...how about "sonically-propelled pop"?