The Pretty Girls

Think rock’n’roll slobs the goat these days? “Marianne,” the second song on this five-cut CD by Sacramento’s own Pretty Girls, will prove you wrong. This four-and-a-half-minute blast lurches into mid-tempo gear with a kick-drum stomp worthy of Charlie Watts, then turns into a dark-glass rave-up that recalls vintage Stones/Dolls/Loney-era Groovies, replete with guitars that chime, crunch and snarl in all the right ways. This one song may be the finest pure rock’n’roll moment any band from this town has yet produced. The rest of this home-burned CD ain’t bad, either: “City Kids” is a garage-filtered take on Britpop; “Likes to Buy Clothes” and “Gangslang” rock hard with circa-’77 elan but are, compared to the other three tracks, filler; “Just a Boy” is a gem that might be something that could make Ray Davies smile. The tracks’ noisy, frayed-wire sonics and low-budget lack of finish add to the charm.