Beautiful Dreamers: The Long Blondes

FRANZ FERDINAND, Kaiser Chiefs, the Long Blondes. What connects them? They were the first three consecutive winners, respectively, of the annual Philip Hall Radar Award, a prestigious honor on the British indie-rock scene. (This year's winner, for those keeping track, was the Twang.)

The first two quickly morphed into rock mainstays; now that the Long Blondes have whipped up some serious buzz in Europe and are embarking on their first bona fide U.S. tour — and first show in Washington — the band is primed to follow in their footsteps. They just won't sound quite the same.

"We're writing a new album right now, so everything's changing in terms of the writing," vocalist Kate Jackson said.

Taking a slightly different tack this early in the name-building game might be considered risky — especially to a record exec — but the Long Blondes say they won't allow themselves to be labeled simply by the moderate success of last year's debut album, "Someone To Drive You Home." Despite enjoying a surging fandom now, the band's newer songs and upcoming follow-up album might actually broaden their appeal, at least gender-wise.

"The album is quite punk; parts of it stick to that punk root, which we have. We moved away from it eventually, because we wanted to have something to play for the girls," Jackson said. "Our more recent songs have a distinctly different feel to them; they're a bit more experimental and dance-y."

"Someone To Drive You Home" was the result of the group's formative years spent working dull post-college jobs — "everybody ended up temping," Jackson said — while sporadically performing and getting frequently called out as Britain's best unsigned band. The album took a coy, witty look at teenage life while bouncing along pleasantly with track of track of infectious, guitar-driven punk-pop.

"It's more about coming to terms with growing up. In those days, you're free to just enjoy yourself and enjoy relationships and go out and get pissed," she said. "Eventually, it's over."

Just as the subjects of "Someone to Drive You Home" are eventually forced to move on, so have the members of the band. Usually groups will wait until after they've rode their sound stale before trying something new; the Long Blondes have already shown fans they don't have to worry about ever getting bored. Four bonus tracks on the U.S. release of the debut were B-sides indicative of the group's newer output; the songs, made with a different producer, feature a larger presence of keyboards and electronica-tinged beats. All without losing the fun that drew such accolades for their debut album.

"If we don't push ourselves, it seems like a step backwards," Jackson said. "We still want to write pop songs with hooks that people can dance to and have catchy choruses that people can sing to, obviously."

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Photo courtesy Dean Chalkley