Mary Timony, local guitar hero, has a new band—-Soft Power. The band—-originally called Pow Wow—-will come as a blessing to Timony fans. The quartet’s sound hews toward the more angular rock of her Helium heyday with some well-studied kraut and psych flourishes thrown in. So far, Soft Power has posted two songs—-“La La La” and “Izabella”—-posted to its myspace page.

Timony is joined by band members Jonah Takagi, Winston Yu, and T.J. Lipple. It looks like the band will be playing Comet Ping Pong on June 20 and Fort Reno in July. [Timony’s website puts the Comet show at June 19].

The band’s songs feel right at home with Timony‘s warped faerie magik whether fronting Helium or with her later solo work [we praised her power trio in 2006]. Frankly, this is the best stuff we’ve heard from Timony in a while. The songs aren’t a total retread, they spark in unexpected ways and do not rest on her sharp guitar playing alone. She doesn’t sing lead on “La La La.” Instead, she is content to stand in the back, let the song rumble, and provide harmony, cooing the song title over and over.

*photo courtesy of Exclaim.