The members of Black Tie Revue bash away at the 28 minutes and change of "Code Fun" like the best of those skinny-tie power-pop bands that responded to punk by investing the catchiest pop songs of their generation with a caffeine buzz that only made them that much more infectious.

	Members of Black Tie Revue are often amused to read who their supposed influences are. Click photo for larger image. Black Tie Revue When: 6 p.m. Saturday (all ages) with Triggers and Bullett Parade; 10 p.m., over-21 with Takeover U.K. and the Subjects. Where: 31st Street Pub, Strip. Information: 412-391-8334.

And their keyboard player underscores the New Wave side of that equation with a nod to vintage Cars without diminishing the youthful punk abandon of those chugging post-Ramones guitars.

It isn't every day you find a pop band that so effortlessly nails the sugar rush that made that era such a blast without coming across as shameless knock-offs or, worse, a museum exhibit. But "Code Fun" sounds more like now than then, a feat that's all the more impressive when you flip the booklet over to find out that they cut these songs in August of 2005.

And while it wouldn't take a 40-something music geek to make it to the final round of Spot The Inspiration here, they ultimately sound more like themselves than any of the bands they've been compared to since the album hit the streets on Gearhead Records.

CD Universe went with "an edgier Fountains of Wayne" (to which the only sane response is ... well, that part about them being edgier is true) while Spin heard Weezer (fair enough).

But bassist Matthew Hanzes says his favorites are the ones comparing them to bands they never even knew existed.

"The Records?" he says, with a laugh. "I'd never heard a Records song until I read about how much that band had influenced our music. I mean, people are right on with the Cars, the Ramones and the Beach Boys. But some of the other things, we just don't get."

Lead singer Anthony Badamo says the songs on "Code Fun" are, in fact, the product of a huge Ramones phase he was going through a few years back.

"You know how every couple years you pull out the Ramones and kind of rediscover their record all over again?" he asks. "These songs are from when I was rediscovering them a second time."

But while there's no mistaking the effect Badamo's big Ramones resurgence had on how the band approaches album-opener "Red Everywhere" or "Too Much Thinking," he's a more sophisticated writer (in a way that doesn't ruin everything). And even on the songs that make the most of his Ramones infatuation, it feels more like the Ramones as filtered through the sensibilities of kids who cut their teeth on Weezer.

Hanzes says he's pretty sure Badamo mentioned both those bands, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, the Velvet Underground, the Cars and "tons of industry connections" in the post on the Roboto Board that brought the two together in 2002. And Hanzes got the gig before he'd played a single note.

As he recalls the day Badamo and original guitarist Ian Glinka came to pick him up outside his dorm at Duquesne University, "I came out of St. Ann's looking tough as nails, wearing a jean jacket, not giving [an expletive], carrying my bass and smoking a cigarette. They didn't even have to hear me play."

It took longer to work out the rest of the lineup. John-Paul McCormick (who'd originally filled in on guitar when Glinka was traveling in Europe and then switched to keyboards when he came back) became their lead guitarist after Glinka left the band for good in 2004. Around that same time, Jesse Ley became their keyboard player and the focal point of any live show. Hanzes says they like to joke about hiring a keyboard player because the one they have spends most of his time banging on a tambourine and dancing around like a goof, which is certainly true but in a good way.

The hard part was finding a drummer. By the time Paul Felty came on board, a month before the drive to Brooklyn to record their debut album with the Brothers, they'd been through more drummers than any band this side of Spinal Tap. But Felty proved a perfect fit. His drumming really drives the more explosive moments of their debut album. And he stuck around to see it through, fueling a live show Uncut magazine declared "the weekend's best surprise" at this year's SXSW Music Conference.

Their goals going into the record were twofold.

One was to capture the feel of the live show.

The other, like the goal of any BTR show, was to keep it short and to the point.

"There's a bunch of Beach Boys records," Hanzes points out, "that are actually shorter than ours."

If anything has held them back since Felty joined, it's been the drive to get this album out, a process Badamo describes as a nightmare.

A well-connected local label pulled the plug when they got back from Brooklyn and they made it to the contract process with two other decent-sized national indies before Gearhead made its play.

As Badamo recalls the months of sorting through those other labels' offers, "Nothing happened, just a lot of talk, a lot of BS. Then Michelle from Gearhead came along and she was revamping the label, signed a bunch of new bands and was looking to focus on a pop group. And we were the group she found."

Now that the record is finally out, Badamo says, it's safe to think about the future.

"I'm excited to move forward now," he says. "I know some of the newer songs and the way I'd like to take it would be definitely still in the same pop vein, just with a little more hips, you know what I mean? A little more swing. I think the newer stuff is a little more danceable. The last couple songs that I've written, that's just how they seem to have come out. The one is kind of a ska-ish, Clash-meets-Madness groove and then the other one that we've been playing has kind of a Belle and Sebastian-type bounce to it."

What's more important, though, Badamo says, is that they're finally a band.

"Once we found Paul, we just clicked personality-wise," he says. "And from then on, it was just like, all right, BTR is like a gang and we're just gonna do it now."