PEP

While Brooklyn indie-poppers Starlight Girls updated their retro sound last year, their drummer Karys Rhea dwells in an even deeper past with PEP. As the story goes, she started her side-project (a duo on album and a sextet live) after she heard "Runaround Sue" playing over a retail P.A. and subsequently went on a downloading binge, devouring all of the '50s and '60s malt-shop pop she could find.

Her devotion pays off with My Baby and Me, an EP due out February 11 that features "Stephen," a Ronettes-owing heartbreaker about that titular cad. Above, you can see the song's video, in which director Jonathan Phelps throws his own vintage variety show to ... well, variable results. - SPIN

If you have a wayward beau out there somewhere named Stephen, well, then today is your lucky day, as PEP — the side project of Starlight Girls drummer Karys Rhea — has penned a “Wedding Bell Blues”-esque jam dedicated to ADD-addled dudes with that very name. The tune comes off of her upcoming debut album, My Baby and Me.

The Brooklyn-based musician’s influences — ’60s girl groups like the Shangri-Las and The Ronettes — shine through on the track, which could just as easily be found issuing from the radio of a 1967 Chevrolet Chevelle as from your iTunes.

A sweet, straight-forward throwback track about lost love, “Stephen” is replete with its share of whispered “shoo-bops” and sugary, sad “Stephen”-inspired rhymes: “Oh, Stephen/ You gave me the feelin’ that we would be fine/ So when I went away I left my heart behind/ Now you’re saying outta sight is outta mind.”

Cue up this jam when you’re set to share straws with your S-monikered dude — or fixing to drop the milkshake in his lap and scram.

My Baby and Me is out December 3. - MTV Hive

Right about now we could all use a little metaphorical and seasonal spring in our steps. Luckily, Brooklyn’s PEP (aka Starlight Girls’ Karys Rhea) is here to save the day. The colorful video for “I Met A Boy,” directed by Avery McCarthy, makes everything seem a little brighter. It reflects Rhea’s sweet retro stylings that flirt with both the ‘50s and ‘60s, and her take on the girl group sound is crisp and clean. If your favorite Shangri-Las song is “Give Him A Great Big Kiss” or “Sophisticated Boom Boom”, this is for you.

PEP’s debut EP My Baby And Me came out last week, and you can listen to it below. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to put on some red lipstick and dance the winter away. - BlackBook