Pink Nasty

Looks like it's time for the '90s indie rock revival. Sebadoh is reuniting for Noise Pop; the Silversun Pumpkins, er, Pick-ups are selling out venues left and right. Before you know it, rockers will be sucking down E's and going all Madchester again. Leading the charge — not to Madchester, but to '90s college radio — is Pink Nasty, a 24-year-old Wichita native currently based in Austin. On her second disc, Mold the Gold, Ms. Nasty (a.k.a. Sara Beck) channels such '90s cult stars as Spoon ("Dirty Soap"), Wilco ("Pass the Test"), and Liz Phair and Pavement ("Take It Back"), even getting Bonnie "Prince" Billy to add vocals to a couple of tracks. But instead of sounding devoid of original ideas, Nasty's tunes bubble with a giddy joie de vivre. She's equally adept at playing tough, take-no-shit rocker grrl and wounded, take-no-shit country siren. Also, for each addictive hook she concocts, she pens a sexy, smart stanza like "A thousand cigarettes from the death/With Miller High Life on your breath/Said I was your experiment/But I know where that test tube's been" (from "Pass the Test"). One listen to Mold the Goldwill make you want to "smash your head on the indie rock" all over again.