The Variety Hour can feel simultaneously fresh and nostalgic. Their eponymous debut EP sounds firmly rooted in Generation X, and, if I never saw the band, I would picture the members with ripped denims and flannel. No offense.

After last decade's resurgence of the '80s in music, the '90s are now up to bat.

Specifically, The Variety Hour evokes the early '90s sounds of Britpop and shoegaze acts like Teenage Fanclub and Swervedriver. There's an intrinsic pop sensibility riding underneath The Variety Hour's debut EP, albeit awash in grungy guitars. Let's take the song "Na Na Na" as an example: It's a pop purebred, existing in a world where love can be expressed in a sweetly sung wordless chorus. Change up the instrumentation and it could have been recorded in any decade since rock's inception.

They release a new EP Friday at The New Frontier Lounge.

[The New Frontier Lounge, with The Dignitaries, Peter Benjamin, Friday, Jan. 22, 8 p.m., $5, 301 E. 25th St., Tacoma, 253.572.4020]