What's your perfect day?

I'm not asking a question; the question isthe name of Argonaut's latest EP, released on Strange Earth Records. If your perfect day has anything to do with rock 'n' roll that's heavy in sound and heart, that's saturated with the sweat of hard and pounding drums; includes a wonderfully mastered EP set on replay, lyrics hitting home and guitar driving hard, then your perfect day would include an afternoon listening party for Argonaut's What's your perfect day? Friday then pressing the stage at Argonaut's show the same night at The New Frontier Lounge.

Tacoma's Argonaut is Brandon Boote on drums, Matt Sader on bass and vocals and Dave Takata and Chad Baker on guitar. Van Conner of Screaming Trees fame owns Strange Earth Records. Together, they have dropped a much-anticipated EP into the South Sound, with a splash and a ripple that resonates from Seattle to Portland and beyond.

With an amazing release show in Seattle last weekend with Princess, Gaytheist and Transient, the foursome plan to tear down The New Frontier Friday with Lamprey, Giza and Power Skeleton, the band that never plays the same song twice.

"We chose to do two releases," says Sader. "We've been treated really well in Seattle."

If the Seattle show's surprise was a chance to hear the third track off Argonaut's new release,"If Canada Is So Great, Why Do Severed Feet Keep Washing Up There?" bleed into Ronnie James Dio's "Rainbow in the Dark," then what can Tacoma expect Friday? Will Argonaut improve with Power Skeleton?

"There are no full-fledged members," says Sader of Power Skeleton. Tobias Cron, Skeleton's frontman, "has a core of ideas and envisions the set mentally and then emails you," he laughs.

The last few years have been tenuous for Argonaut. The band shifted players, experimented with indie, broke up then got back together. Ultimately, it was the encouragement of the Seattle music scene and the support of friends that gave that extra push to record and keep up the heavy.

Sader tells me the band was approached by a close friend to play their wedding, that Hannah Levin from KEXP was pissed off the band broke up and basically demanded they get back together and that band mate Dave Takata was ready to play whenever Sader was - all factors to Argonaut's rebirth.

After the resurrection, the advances kept coming. Van Conner wanted to record, venues in Seattle asked them to play, and most recently, BJ Shea played the band's "The Battle of Pig Hill" on KISW's "Loud and Local" show.

What's Pig Hall?

"I wrote this song for a specific reason, explains Sader. "We used to have massive fireworks wars at the Muckleshoot Indian Reservation fireworks stand. Man, there was no way we should have come out of there unscathed. I mean we were launching roman candles that shot M80s at each other. The nickname of the hill in Auburn - where I grew up - was Piggly Wiggly Hill, and it got shortened to Pig Hill."

The rest of the EP is also worthy of airplay with catchy song titles, such as "Unicorns and Hatchets,"and is set to release on KEXP's upcoming downloadable mixtape.

The front and back cover artwork rounds out the EP experience, with wisps of smoke coming from a burning church, that lick the letters of Argonaut; the A and the T protruding some sort of horn or vertebrae, adding to the metal feel.

"It's like extreme beauty and extreme evil, a combination of both elements," says Sader. "I'm so proud of this record."

Come celebrate with Argonaut, enjoy the magic that only happens at live shows and pick up What's your perfect day? You won't be disappointed.

THE NEW FRONTIER LOUNGE, W/ LAMPREY, GIZA AND POWER SKELETON, FRIDAY, FEB. 22, 9 P.M., $6, 301 E. 25TH ST., TACOMA, 253.572.4020

LINK: What's your perfect day?