Some bands seem to come pre-packaged, seemingly delivered out of thin air. Then there are others who crash the party with explosive new sounds and transgressive stage sets that force people to take notice. Such is the case with Sherlock's Daughter. After getting together this spring, releasing a five-track EP through Australia's Inertia label, and supporting The Temper Trap and School of Seven Bells on their respective summer tours down under, the Sydney-based fivesome booked plane tickets to New York on a whim hoping to secure a few shows after confirming last-minute spots on a couple CMJ showcases. (PHOTO: SHERLOCK'S DAUGHTER)

"I think we're just impatient," says bassist Liam Flanagan. "We figured if we didn't book any shows we'd at least have a good holiday." Looks like they'll be getting both. On the heels of the trippy dance party they delivered at The Hours Norwood showcase, the band scored a monthlong residency at Pianos, which kicked off last Thursday with a crowd chockablock of entertainment lawyers. If you get a chance, go see them. With a name that's an ode to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a singer (Tanya Horo) who was kicked out of her Christian high school and a youth camp–in Christchurch, New Zealand, no less–for being a witch, and a woodsy, synth-backed sound powered by Horo's whispery Nina Persson-esque vocals and an almost aboriginal backbeat, they should have some staying power. Thurston Moore even namechecked them as a band to watch in an interview last Friday with NPR.

Currently living together in Prospect Heights in an apartment where they share bunk bends ("I'm on the bottom," jokes Horo), the band is hoping to record a two-track 7-inch disc at the Catskill's renowned Outlier Inn before going back to Sydney next month to record their first album. "Unless something amazing happens here we're going back in December," says the singer, who was formerly known as the actress Marvey King. A cross between Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ellen Page, and Karen O, Horo weaves around the stage like a black-clad pixie in some psychedelic forest. "When people describe our music it always ends up in a forest," says Horo. "Liam calls it Chinese country."

However you want to describe it, it's intoxicating to see the spell Horo and Co. cast on stage. Which brings us back to the witchcraft. "I did get kicked out of high school because they thought I was a witch, but I'm not a witch. I think it was because I had a boyfriend who was gothic. Also somebody spray-painted this massive white pentagram with 666 under it and I got blamed for it," she admits, though won't go into specifics about a purported voice that needed to get out of her at that time. "I'll tell you the whole story someday." No need to worry though, says drummer William Russell. "We're trying to steer her away from her witch past."