Bellingham, famously, is the birthplace of titanic indie mopesters Death Cab for Cutie. In the years since those hometown boys made good, however, Bellingham has striven to cultivate an offbeat DIY music scene, encompassed by a plethora of rough-hewn genre-benders and the hush-hush house venues they frequent. In spite of - and in the midst of - this atmosphere of underground experimentalism, the pop-minded upstarts in Candysound have already found great success at home and in Washington state at large (they're competitors in this year's Sound Off! Competition). The band revels in their use of familiar indie rock chord progressions, arrangements, and structures, doling out sugary and characteristically Northwestern basement pop with a charming off-handedness. Which is not to say that they're slipshod musicians - quite the opposite: they're an aptly-named and promising young band with admirably palatable instincts. 

Candysound

With Shenandoah Davis
Saturday, May 15, 8 p.m., all ages
The Den @ urbanXchange, 1934 Pacific Ave., Tacoma
253.572.2280