Three months ago Neutralboy guitarist Mike Frottage decided to crank out some acoustic work based on his colorful experiences with past girlfriends.  At some point, the would-be solo project snowballed into a total band experience, with the introduction of singer Becca Bockelie and Bremerton guitarist Billman (pronounced as if he's a super hero).  Frottage switched to drums, and the group started drawing inspiration from a familiar muse. Love Songs From the Hated was born.

"I just wrote songs about girls that hate me," Frottage remarks over beers at a recent Neutralboy show.

The recordings went through several phases of development, first as a Neutralboy demo, and then as a solo project for Frottage himself.  Eventually, the project blossomed from Frottage's rasp-and-guitar accounts of bygone crash-and-burn romances when Bockelie showed up to drop some backup vocals and ended up with more than she'd bargained for.

"She basically came over to record, and five hours later we emerged from the studio with a demo," Frottage explains.

Despite the fact she loves what she's doing, Bockelie admits it certainly hasn't been all roses.

"I fought with Mike all the time," she admits, "until Billman came along."

Billman has yet to be featured on Love Song From the Hated's website, since the posted tracks are of the strictly Frottage-Bockelie sessions. But Frottage and Bockelie are very excited about the guitarist's contribution to the process. When asked about what kind of influences he's bringing to the table, Billman simply states he's writing, "Whiskey-drinking music...with sideburns."

Despite Billman's amazing characteristics both as a guitarist and as a catalyst for happy co-existence, Frottage still manages to contribute a healthy dose of cathartic input to the band's songwriting process.  The addition of drums has also changed the dynamic, according to Frottage,

"It brings the party to the hangover," he says.

Still, Billman be damned, Bockelie and Frottage manage to use their dysfunctional synergy as fuel for the mixing board.

"It's the worst relationship I've never been in," Bockelie remarks, followed immediately by an eruption of laughter from Frottage, a self admitted "total dick."

The band's music is like a soundtrack to the morning after a typical night of blue-collar recreation.  After the pounding rage of Saturday night, Love Songs' subtle, sometimes discordant ballads are there to soothe Sunday zombies who stare out the window, nursing livers that shake and beg for mercy. The songs speak plain, simple truths about a variety of relationship experiences. Lyrics to songs like "I Hate Being By Myself" come to terms with clinging to the mast of shipwrecked love until the bitter finale, for want of a little company ...

I love the way you say goodbye, underneath your breath you hope I die.  I hate being by myself, so I choose to live in this hell with you.

It's a rough study in balladry, but as far as Love Songs From The Hated goes, it touches on all the right nerves. 

[Hell's Kitchen, with Old Man Markley, Cooper McBean, Looking for Lizards, 8 p.m., NC, 928 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.759.6003]