Rites

Sometimes a band comes along that makes you ask yourself, "How did they come up with this?" That question is inescapable to anyone who's paying attention to Cliffie Swan, a Brooklyn quartet (three musicians and light-show artist Wizard of Smoke) formerly known as Lights. The harmonies of guitarist Sophia Knapp and drummer Linnea Vedder (their testosterone-laden bassist mostly keeps his yap shut) drift back and forth from harmony to unison like Bananarama in a slap-fight with the Dixie Cups, while the music turns on a dime from heady psychedelia to hip-swiveling funk. The fact that Cliffie Swan claim both Jimi Hendrix and Prince as influences is not insignificant. All the transitions can be momentarily jarring, as with the move from the groovy Grateful Dead-isms of opening track "Heavy Drops" to the ESG-are-my-Facebook-friends playground R&B of second cut "Can You Hear Me." But who wants to know what's coming next all the time, anyway? And if your hipster radar goes off at the prospect of a Williamsburg-based band full of photogenic young ladies, fear not, Cliffie Swan are a substantive lot, and second album Rites -- their first for Drag City -- is bound to dispel the darkness.