LadybiRdS: Regional Community Theatre

It seems that every self-respecting indie musician needs a side project these days, and if Tyler Pursel is any indication, that applies to hip-hop folk as well. Pursel, who plays keyboards for hip-hop popsters Gym Class Heroes, has been using his days off to pursue his love for Cyndi Lauper and the Postal Service with his side project LadybiRdS. He, with help from Teeter Sperber’s candy-girl-pop vocals, indulges those influences on Regional Community Theatre, a sugar-coated, dance-happy record of electronic squiggles and bleeps. For the most part, it’s pretty straight-forward stuff, but every once in a while they mix things up — a children’s choir here, pitch-shifted vocals there — and that’s when the album’s at its best. Toss in a wonderfully experimental instrumental, “You are the Torro King”, and it’s enough to make you think that while LadybiRdS might be pretty good now, someday they could be great.