Some of them you might know THE SATIN CHAPS already. Bassist Eric Hedford was in the Dandy Warhols. Drummer Luke Strahota is in the High Violets. Hedford describes the sound as "60s go-go combined with late-60s European/German soft-core porno soundtracks."

Sassy. Sultry. Sexy. Sophisticated. These are just some of the words that describe Angeline King, Tish Peterson and Rachel Mae Havens, the three vocalists who stand center stage in The Bang Girl Group Revue, the San Francisco Bay Area’s most exciting show band. And while the trio of vivacious vocalists do channel the classic sounds of the 1960s, including the Brill Building’s tales of teenage heartbreak, Tamla/Motown’s elegant R&B micro-symphonies and the foot-stomping Memphis soul of Stax, they also blend in a large measure of original songs that sound timeless but still have a timely edge.

Soul doesn't come easy in the lily-white Northwest, but Portland's Brownish Black delivers an astonishingly authentic brand of vintage rough-edged R&B. Anchored by the full-throated belting of singer Vicki Porter and M.D. Sharbatz's rusty-strings guitar tone, the band doesn't try to mimic the polished majesty of '60s Motown like a lot of today's revivalists. (What unsigned act can afford to do so in this economy, anyway?) Instead, it works a sound more indebted to the grittier, more low-rent aesthetic of Stax/Volt and blues-indebted rock outfits like the Animals. The lo-fi quality of its demos work in the group's favor, but a legit studio album—if one ever arrives—could be a sleeper hit.