One of the greatest parts of CMJ was reading band descriptions off the official pamplet. You can just tell the interns of CMJ toiled endlessly up until the week of shows to come up with 1,300 descriptions for each of the bands. The official description of Kisses read, “Minimal dance beats propel airy tunes.”

photo by Louise Brask

Now I don’t think I can top that beautiful intern poetry. But what I can tell you is why I think Kisses are one of the up & coming indie pop bands of 2010. Not even having released an album yet, the trio of teenagers created a symphony of light indie rock with a background of ambient reverb that makes them the next Air France. Hailing from California’s LA area, you could call them ‘chillwave,’ but their west-coast influence sets them apart from the washed over bands that have been exploding in popularity over the past year.

The basement of Webster hall, The Studio, is small stage that looks it could fit no more than 100 people. Gathered around the stage that Friday night was a gaggle of about 50 onlookers, most of whom were holding notebooks, cameras, and cellphones in their hands, eager to report on the CMJ buzzband.

Kisses performed a debut set that made the crowd swoon in pure tropicalia bliss. Not only was the sound impressive, but the band’s style was also good enough to comment on. Kisses keyboardist, Zinzi Edmundson, had the cutest hairstyle: chopped, mod-style bangs. Her outfit was a full-bodied navy blue dress, sewn around the midriff and extended into skirted pleating. Her style on stage can only be paralleled to a cute french witch from the 1960s. Think Barbara Eden’s performance on the American sitcom ‘I Dream of Jeannie.’ After snooping out more about Zinzi on the internet, I found she has a blog, a gold mine, basically, of her latest fashion favorites.

Step aside Jens Lekman, boyish-faced lead singer and gutarist, Jesse Kivel, (who is also Zinzi’s boyfriend!) is the other face of the band. Onstage he held a omniscent cool that not only made him gleam rock ‘n’ roll, but also held an innocence of the kind of boy that would take you out to the malt-shop after school.

Throughout the show, Jesse had a pair of aviators that were attached on his collared shirt. Before the very last song of their 45 minute set, an audience member shouted to Jesse wondering why he wasn’t wearing them. Mr. Kivel joked around that “someone online would blog about him being an asshole if he didn’t put them on.” So, playing along, he grabbed the sunglasses and wore them for the last song. The finale in the Studio of Webster Hall had Jesse looking like a young Tom Cruise— straight out of Top Gun. At the end of their show, everyone, all 50 people, clapped in ovation. So after falling in love, it felt like the vacation was over, and I didn’t want them to go.

Their performance had a sweetness that I’ve only witnessed at a ‘The Bird and The Bee’ concert I saw at Wolf Trap freshman year. Right now they’re in their kindlings, but their songs have a catchiness and almost sunshine about them that has potential. Not to mention they are super young, and clearly ahead of other artists of their and my generation. Make them the next big indie pop band, please!