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Under-20s playing self-consciously pop music have been an important force in U.K. rock at least since the Undertones, who sang of Mars bars and being dressed funny by one’s mother. More recently, the members of Ash updated the tradition by naming an album for the year of their births (1977, yikes) and namedropping Jackie Chan and “Teenage Lobotomy.” Now along comes Bis, a Scottish trio whose 18-song Grand Royal long-player doubtless will test the patience of at least a handful of Beastie Boys loyalists. Those with senses of humor and proportion might well have some fun with this crew’s knowingly plotted odes to innocence, sugar rushes, John Hughes flicks, and the disgust only a true believer can hurl at a hated musician (“Hey, popstar, get out my face/I hate the sight of you/Hate, hate, hate,” they proclaim, gun barrels all full of flowers). Sci-Fi Steven, Manda Rin, and John Disco are sharp students of their new-wave and disco sources, providing a better XTC song than Andy Partridge has in a decade (“Mr. Important”) and making more than one or two tracks that actually sound danceable. Female member Rin brings post-Naomi Wolf (or post-Deborah Foreman) smarts to “Monstarr” (“Funny how your life depends upon your waistline,” which the two Bis boys parrot with her) and the wicked grrrl-parody “Photo Shop” (“I am angry cuz my boyfriend says so….I sing this song cuz my boyfriend says so”). Sixty minutes of this is enough to murder your sweet tooth, but taken in judicious doses, The New Transistor Heroes is, yeah, teenage kicky.Rickey Wright