You have to either have a pretty big belief in yourself or a heck of a command of power-pop's fundamentals and advanced theory to even think about taking a name as celebratory as The Parties. After a spin of Cryin' Shame, it's pretty easy to see that the San Francisco band's got both, with its command of guitar pop fueling self confidence in a five-song feedback loop.

The Parties' sound spans the power-pop basics (The Kinks, The Byrds), the garage fundamentals (The Charlatans and We Five) to '90s revivalists (Ride, Teenage Fanclub), with a songwriting style that stresses great melodies and energy more than maintaining the historical status quo. That doesn't mean the outfit bastardizes its style, though: While it muddies the sands of time by stretching its influences across a 30-year swath, it never lets any influences that aren't of the strictest power-pop pedigree in the door on Cryin' Shame, making this EP a pop lover's fantasy and a purist's nightmare.

One day you're going to wake up and decide which side of the bed you're on. If it's the former, Cryin' Shame should give you reason to celebrate. The Parties know a thing or two about stylish mod riffs, jangly sunshine guitars and melodies that trip back into folk-based progressions so smoothly you won't notice the band's wandering out of rock'n'roll territory. The title track opens the effort with a stunningly simple jangle-pop effort that runs The Byrds' melodic sense through the tiniest bit of psychedelic sparkle. "Blame It On the Sun" and "Kensington Avenue" match the lighthearted guitars of early Fannies with vocal melodies that are pure Merseybeat, and "I Disagree" seems to lovingly pine away for everything from the '60s to the mid-'90s.

The Parties came up with an EP that lives up to the high-times fun promised by the act's name. That alone should be a ringing enough endorsement for any pop fanatic to check out this EP.