Cartoon music makes for candy apples

he Apples in Stereo is a rarity in today's popular music. Arguably the most anachronistic and eccentric of the Elephant 6 set (the group of 1960s-worshipping bands including Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control and The Minders, among others), Robert Schneider and his Apples have already adeptly displayed their unique vision in four full-length albums and a concept EP. And with this summer's release of Let's Go, the band has proven it can also write for cartoons. \n"Signal in the Sky" is the bouncy three-minute ditty the Apples wrote for the animated series, "The Powerpuff Girls" and is presented here with three other equally cartoonish tracks and a demo of the aforementioned. \nThose familiar with the Apples or the Powerpuffs can well imagine the type of musical fare we're talking about. With lines like, "Would you like to play a game of hide and seek now?", "Hey girls, hey girls, come out and play now!" and choruses of la-la-las to boot, "Signal in the Sky" dances with enough saccharine bounce to induce a coma. \nThe EP's second song, "If You Want to Wear a Hat," is no more serious. Its first verse is "If you want to wear a hat/You'd better get one that looks better than that/Or on second thought the hat upon your head/Would look good with a feather instead." Enough said.\nNevertheless, as charmingly cheerful as these two songs are, the real gem here is a live cover of the Beach Boy hit, "Heroes and Villains." Influences bleeding from their sleeves, Schneider and company blaze through a sloppy but faithful rendition of the classic with vim and vigor to spare.\nFor those who don't already know Apples in Stereo, Let's Go might not be the place to start. But it's surely a welcome addition for those who know the band in all its fun and jubilation.