Hyperbole tends to run rampant in record labels’ artist biographies. Such is the case with Monster Bobby, whose “one-sheet” identifies him as a “musical activist” in Brighton, England. The man himself sees things a little more humbly. “I’ve been putting on gigs in Brighton and playing in bands and doing zines and things for about ten years now,” he clarifies. “So, I suppose that constitutes some sort of ‘activity.’”

One of the “things” Bobby busied himself with was a club night christened Totally Bored. Seeing the reaction that just playing classic girl group hits incited, a grander concept began to take shape for the impresario. He shares, “The Pipettes, or some version of that idea, had been a sort of pipe dream knocking around in my head for several years.” Ultimately, collaborator Julia Clark-Lowes convinced Bobby to act on the impulse. After a few permutations, The Pipettes became a reality.

Intellectualising ‘schtick’

Clad in polka dots and boasting vibrant vocals and brazen charisma, the trio of Gwenno, Becki and Rose constitute The Pipettes proper while the four-piece, all-boy Cassettes (with Bobby on guitar) hold the backline. Despite the distinguishing monikers, they consider it a seven-member enterprise. “We’re all here to try and fulfil a concept,” suggests Rose. “We’re aspiring to be a pop band. We’re not interested in being cool or culty or any of that.” Bobby readily condemns the “dreadful, chest-beatingly earnest cock rock” that currently constitutes “indie” in the UK. As Rose suggests, “It seems kind of irrelevant and quite contrived in its own right. I think we’re quite honest with where we’re coming from.”

Indeed, The Pipettes were designed to churn out hits and wrest back the charts from the Gloomy Guses of the world. A listen to 2006’s We Are The Pipettes leaves one utterly baffled as to why the band isn’t already a household name. Singles like “Pull Shapes” and “Your Kisses are Wasted on Me” contain more hooks than a well-stocked tackle box. Furthermore, as the vocalists willingly volunteer, they’re “the prettiest girls you’ve ever met.”

Admittedly, the group’s old school aesthetic and fashion sense are occasionally dismissed as “shtick.” “Again, it’s this whole idea of what’s real or what’s true,” Rose says wearily. “We use these references as a starting point. As a template to express some of the things we want to say. Not to just be a rehash or a pastiche.”

“Can you give me a single example of something being created ex nihilo?” questions Bobby. “Any kind of originality requires a careful and patient study of the existing forms or else you will find yourself unconsciously replicating them in the most boring and pedestrian manner.”

In this vein, The Pipettes utilize the traditional “girl group” model to channel contemporary concerns, attitudes and “small truths.” “Forty-five years of history have passed (since the Phil Spector era),” observes Rose. “As young women, we’re in a position to express ourselves in a much broader way than girls were back-in-the-day.” And so, whereas The Crystals and Ronettes were wont to pine and swoon, The Pipettes are more inclined to recount: “I left you alone; At four in the morning; Not a stitch to wear; ‘Cause you ignored my warning.” (“One Night Stand”)

Given their love of bold proclamations, it’s odd to hear Rose suggest that the band is only now finding their form. “We know ourselves so much better,” she says of their three-year learning curve. “We’re much more confident. Each of us is less afraid to take risks. Hopefully, that will carry forth to the second album.”

Bobby’s Permanent Record

While The Pipettes look forward to the North American release of their first album (August 28 on Cherrytree) and a summer of European festivals, their founder also has his own calendar marked. Monster Bobby’s debut solo disc, Gaps, will be out July 17 on Hypnote. He admits that it feels “bloody great” to finally have a record to call his own. “It’s been really nice to do something just the way I wanted to without having to appeal to anyone else’s tastes and sensibilities.”

From all accounts, Bobby tends towards concise pop songs with occasionally unwieldy titles. For instance, “The Closest Experience to That of Being With You is the Experience of Taking Drugs” is an endearing two minutes of acoustic guitar, dodgy synthesizers and heartfelt vocals. “What I’m aiming for, I suppose, is to get that same sort of mix of humour and pathos as you might find in a Charlie Chaplin film,” suggests Bobby. “My subjectivity as a songwriter is very fluid and polymorphously perverse. I’d say I’ve got at least three or four different voices on the album.”

Sonically, Gaps draws from the “primitivist electronics” of the KPM music library and BBC Radiophonic Workshop and evidences Monster Bobby’s affection for composers John Cage and Cornelius Cardew. Other esoteric influences include “the Sonic Arts Union, the Musique Concrète of Schaeffer and Henry and also traditional English folk music, of the Anne Briggs, Topic Records school.”

“I’m pretty proud of it and it’s turned out pretty well exactly how I wanted and expected it to,” surmises Bobby. Then, in a refreshing disclosure from the man intent on sending The Pipettes into the pop stratosphere, he confides, “I’ve no idea what anybody else is gonna think of it.”

The Pipettes, Smoosh & Monster Bobby play The Plaza on Friday, June 15