The Young Mammals sprung fully-formed out of Stratford High School several years ago, playing cacophonous, energetic indie rock with the same joyful abandon as a preschooler riding a skateboard down the side of a hill. Their first full-length, CARROTS, is an early and very strong candidate for local album of the year; it fuses their earlier Walkmen-cum-Pixies influences with songcraft and production straight out of the noisier chapters of the Flaming Lips playbook. Also, they all have very curly black hair.

I don’t think they had really even talked about what they were going to do before they arrived at my place; Carlos Sanchez (vocals, guitar, bassist Jose’s brother) told me they hadn’t ever played acoustically before “but we think we can figure something out” (Carlos and lead guitarist Cley Miller ended up borrowing a couple of my guitars, which I’m assuming makes me an honorary member of the band, which I’m assuming means I get a cut of their album sales… guys, please mail me that check soon k thx bye). We ended up recording five or six songs, the guys just goofing off and seeing what worked. This one is called “Dragon Wagon,” a song that’s every bit as good as the title is silly.

Stop by the Young Mammals’ MySpace (http://myspace.com/youngmammals) to preview some of the songs, including the studio version of “Dragon Wagon.” Also, if you ever see them on the street or at shows or at Whole Foods, make sure to say hi; they’re all tremendously friendly guys. With very curly black hair.