Emily Watson (Extended Play)

Even by L.A. standards, Human Hands has a checkered past. Formed in 1978, disbanded by 1981, the band still somehow managed to record enough material to fill several different versions of a compilation album. When it re-formed in 1999 with a drastically different lineup, the eventual result was this fine four-song EP, on which the band plays quirky, jagged, and jangly guitar rock that harks back (in a good way) to the time period and the scene that spawned Human Hands in the first place. The title track opens things up on an enjoyably skewed note: imagine the Beach Boys fronted by Morrissey, singing pretty background harmonies over chiming guitars while the singer croons about three different versions of a very unhappy girl (one a roughneck's widow who has now become a prostitute, another who's bound to a wheelchair, and another whose husband is "acting very peculiar"). "Steam" harks back even more explicitly to early-'80s post-punk guitar pop, while "My Beautiful Song" is harder and spikier around the edges. "Shimmer" evokes middle-period R.E.M., which is a compliment.