Audiovox

Look, we know you've been eyeing those overpriced, noise-canceling headphones for months now. If you really need an excuse to splurge, the eponymous debut EP from the KC-native Audiovox is it. Singer, guitarist and keyboardist Martin Bush (Salt the Earth, Paper Cities) and drummer Brad Chancellor (Orion), in an unexpected step away from their harder-edged backgrounds, have teamed up to create six hyper-poppy, Casiotoned beauties — it's positively dizzying to hear the pristine bleeps and blips of tracks like "Ready-Aim-Fire" ping-ponging between your eardrums in hi-fi. On "A Cautionary Tale," Bush's buoyant guitars and sparkling keyboards sound a bit like Matthew Sweet with a Dntel fetish, but the duo delivers it with enough force to make it their own. The only real downside here is the EP's brevity, bringing it to an end long before you're ready, which is one more reason that your trusty white earbuds just won't do this baby justice.