Right now, I swear, there's a smoke-filled room somewhere full of sweaty record executives feverishly poring over the Billboard and SoundScan charts, racking their brains to come up with the next big new-rock marketing initiative to foist on unsuspecting American teenagers. If Gainesville, FL's Towers of Hanoi are lucky, one of those record-label weasels will apply the Evanescence Formula (classically-trained girl singer with hard-rockin' boy backing band) to noisy Unwound-style indie-rock, find them, sign them and make them ultra-bazillionaires overnight. Sure, the chances of the record companies doing this instead of, oh, cobbling together two existing sub-genres (emotronica! Industrial-grunge!) or re-inventing an old one (fourth-wave ska! New-new-new wave!) are slim, but it's fun to dream, no?

Until the suits come knocking, Towers of Hanoi (who emerged from the ashes of the fantastically-named Appalachian Drinking League) will have to take comfort in their wholly unique and slightly ponderous fusion of proggy indie and classically-schooled female vocals. On this four-song EP, they channel the ghosts of Jefferson Airplane and force them to play like ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead. Singer Rachel Ryder's caterwauling vocals frequently recall the apocalyptic doom-warbles of Grace Slick at the crest of an acid wave, lending an almost gothic character to husband Travis Whitton's muscular riffs.

Unfortunately, Towers of Hanoi have a hard time staying focused; what could have been the seeds of eight or nine punchy songs are instead jumbled together in four-minute good-but-not-great patchworks like "Don't Break It". There's plenty here to build upon, but Towers of Hanoi should really focus their energies on their desired stylistic direction, whether they become alt-rock powerhouses or why-didn't-we-think-of-that? college-rock darlings. Choose wisely, young grasshoppers.