Tom Lynch

The Baltimore duo of Anar Badalov and Flora Wolpert-Checknoff--who make up indie-electronic team Metal Hearts--may not be the most experienced pair of musicians (neither of them are 20 yet), but their wisdom in youth flows through "Socialize," the band's Suicide Squeeze Records debut, a promising first impression of somber pop, drum-machine experimentation and haunting harmonies.

"I think there is a little pressure," Badalov says of being so young. "We've been called teeny boppers before, and that's frustrating. I guess if we didn't tell people our age that would've changed things. Hopefully people will realize that we've grown up a little bit. Even when we were doing `Socialize,' we didn't feel that we were kids writing kid songs."

The band, which takes its name from the Cat Power song from the famous record "Moon Pix," is already hard at work on its new record, even though "Socialize" was just released in February. It seems that while Metal Hearts have made a solid album, the band has done so only as a sort of introduction, and even Badalov knows there's more territory to explore. "We're pretty excited about the next record," Badalov says. "`Socialize' is a good start, but it doesn't have that much life to it. I'm into a few songs, but I think we can do so much more than that. I still feel that it's a good start. Franz Ferdinand is an awesome band, so is the Arcade Fire, but the sound is really old. The next record is a little bit more thought-out. We have a drummer now, and with a drum machine, the sound was a little more simplified."

Was it overwhelming for the duo to be thrown on tour at such a fresh, but young, stage in its musical development? "It was a little overwhelming," he says, "but it's more overwhelming thinking about how much money we're gonna lose being an indie band. It's nice to know that we have another record coming out sometime soon. There's a little more pressure now, I guess. But at the same time it's nice, knowing we're in a studio, saying we should fix certain things up, knowing people are gonna hear it."

Metal Hearts play May 27 at Metro, 3730 North Clark, (773)549-0203, at 7pm. $13.

(2006-05-23)

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