“There are several artists named Twin Peaks,” says the Last.Fm page I’m imagining in my head right now.  I know there’s a rapper and at least two other terrible “barely off the ground” projects that came up with lazy googling.  [One band had a video posted called "first twin peaks band practice pt 1" which started with the seemingly disembodied arm of a man holding a coors can as another thirty-something fiddled on a guitar in the background.]

If you’re feeling sex-crazed and hungry you can eat at Twin Peaks, a Hooters-esque restaurant chain.  If you are feeling merely sex-crazed, I’m sure some pornographer has established a video series with the accidentally bosom-centric name.

The pinnacle of all of this name-sharing is Chicago’s garage poppy Twin Peaks.  The band sounds just as good live as on record, which is mystifying considering the nature of reverb pedal’d mics and the sheer number of dudes in this band.  Their newest demo is mastered beautifully though boasts the mark of no label or producer.  If nothing else, marvel at the production value with me.

Their 2012 demo tape starts off with “Come Bother Me,” a track thats tropical riffing is reminiscent of early Abe Vigoda (Skeleton-era).  Track two is a doo-whopper entitled “Caroline“–a song that I suspect is inspired by the Lynchian etonym.  At times the band approaches the more sharp and fast garage sound of bands on labels like Hozac and Burger, but they almost always return to a sound that could be described in modern terms as a mix between Harlem and Chicago-locals Smith Westerns–decisively innocent in melody & fueled by nuances so small they’re nearly invisible in the convoluted expansiveness.

The band has a knack for creating lulling sounds that invigorate rather than induce sleep–always building to something bigger, adding layers.  The keyboard is perfectly understated; there’s never too much jangle (though is there ever really too much jangle?).  “Natural Villain“, the third demo track, has an almost inaudibly hellish nature to the explosive parts.  Subtextual screeching.  A slow thumping bassline booming to better things.

“Harlem“, the demo’s last track, features a tongue-in-cheek seeming drum machine track which is eventually demolished by tasteful crescendo.  The delicate “classical” guitar in the background is jarring despite its elegance; there’s a certain desire to adhere to convention while simultaneously in feverish defiance.  The keyboards, again, make the track.  

“Pop” seems like such a hateful label, but I get the feeling that Twin Peaks would gladly adopt it, knowing they’re working toward a sound that is both predictably pop and shockingly discordant.

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 Their demo has been released under a Creative Commons licence, and you can download it on their bandcamp page.