Skittish

Too weird for pop, too catchy for indie prudes, and too restless to stay in one place, Skittish is back with the new EP “Ugly Makes Pretty.” They say bad times produce great art. You need to have the bad to feel the good, yin for the yang, all that. False hope? A rationalization? Probably. Skittish spent most of its existence in the Minnesota music scene, but has been bumming around Los Angeles for the last 4 years. Jeff Noller is the the man behind the moniker, but incredibly talented musicians swoop in to help where he is hopeless. Brianna Tagg crushes the bipolar lead vocals on the raucous “My Day of Revenge.” Deza lends some sweetness to the album with her vocals on “Mother Nature,” accompanied by Phil Madeira’s Piano, Chris Madden’s organ, and warm, sock-you-in-the-stomach drums from Matt Davies. Ian Prince expertly handles the drumming on all the other songs. A triumphant trio of horns appears on “Present Tense” thanks to Kyle Matthees, and lastly Chris Lahn keeps his streak of appearing on every Skittish record by ripping through guitar solos on “Kicking In.” Hardly predictable, Skittish pushes past its folk-rock genre into hard rock and soul territory on “Ugly Makes Pretty.” A splash of something different in a watered down scene. Skittish has spent its career thumbing its nose at the mainstream, only to find the mainstream wasn’t paying attention anyway. This is what you get when you have no expectations, no boxes, no rules. Just making music for the art of it (and to escape reality). Algorithms have yet to crack the Skittish code, but that’s fine. You found us, and inexplicably read this far, so that means you’re one of the weirdos we love. Welcome aboard.