Band of Skulls: "The Devil Takes Care of His Own"

Juke Box Hero keeps us alive this week with the Band of Skulls. Catch them on Friday of Lolla at 6 p.m. on the Google Play stage.

This alt-rock trio from Southampton, England, might have gotten some of the biggest career breaks of any group in the last couple years. And I’m glad they did. These guys flat out rock.

Their debut album was put out by "boutique" (read: small but mighty) record label Shangri-La Music in 2009 after merely two years of the group bouncing around a London pub circuit. For a body of artists and fans (indie), that equates "staying underground and unknown" with "cool, this rapid commodification may not sit well." But here’s the thing: People gotta eat. Your "cred" grows or diminishes depending on how you act once you’re eating steak tartare instead of SpagettiOs.

For obvious reasons, Shangri-La brought the Skulls into their mini-but-elite fold. You may have heard of some of the other outfits under the Santa Monica house’s hip yet limited umbrella: The Pretenders, Willie Nelson, Monsters of Folk. These guys may be mini, but they know how to manage and promote greatness. 

And for Band of Skulls, that meant getting them a featured iTunes single, play time on the acclaimed TV series Friday Night Lights, and a spot on the Twilight soundtrack. One could easily assess their rise to greatness as calculated, shallow, and not exactly warranting musical "cred." But listening to "The Devil Takes Care" and the rest of Skulls’ YouTube oeuvre, I don’t care how they reached my ears, I’m just thankful they did.

Summer, meet your antidote to Carly Rae Jepsen (or at least distraction, because let’s be honest, the song is genius and we all know it).

A British blues-rock trio AND the girl plays bass? On paper, I’m already drooling. Then a juicy guitar lick staggers into the airspace with a seedy, mischievous confidence, like a gator weaving through the swamp. Commence self-fanning. Tight, eerie male-female vocal harmony? Shut up. Pounding, gritty southern-rock chorus that would make Lynyrd Skynyrd call "uncle"? Sweet baby Jesus.

Aside from the harmonizing, they’re not overwhelming vocally. Solid, not special, individually; though as the voices intertwine, their union does start to take on an ethereal quality that’s both unsettling and infectious. Do we ultimately hold it against the Skulls that they had to go through Robert Pattinson & co. to find us?

Or just congratulate them on their luck and then go back to rocking out?