Delta Spirit

Delta Spirit

www.myspace.com/deltaspirit

Friends: 4,469

Profile views: 49,566

Plays: 113,554

Headline: “i think i've found it!”

Best comment: “you guys are gonna be huge and im gonna tell girls I know you guys and then I wont be able to get you on the phone.”

Goes well with: A poppy MC5, The Strokes if they were transplanted to Mississippi, Louis XIV with a blues bent

The gospel of rock was always meant to be preached by young, good-looking boys with shaggy hair and big guitars. This is the stuff that, when played on FM radio, listeners phone in for the 411 because you can't help but hear them sweat, shirtless, over these licks in some dingy garage with an eight-track.

We're speaking of Delta Spirit, a blues-rock outfit that crafts little ditties made of fire, brimstone and handclapping pop. Some gomers are great at copping the Delta grime, but these San Diego chaps churn and roll through with a new take on the blues. They lift some of The Strokes here and there (“Gimme Some Motivation”), before launching into unexpected and quirky little licks of piano showmanship (“French Quarter”). They sing about the child sex trade (“Street Walker”) and support Oxfam.

They've got God in their heads and sex in their hearts. Or vice versa. But you can also saunter over to MySpace for their video of “Gimme Some Motivation,” a toe-tapping party directed by Vern Moen, who also helmed the Cold War Kids' first video. With a new six-song EP just out, a recent jaunt with the Cold War Kids and a Monday residency at Spaceland in December, these cats may not be just a MySpace phenom for much longer.

-Caley Cook