You might as well mark recent times as the “Era of Lo-Fidelity.” While bands like Dr. Dog have recently let go of their lo-fi ways, other outfits like The Mountain Goats and Panda Bear (on Young Prayer) have embraced the low sonic quality made popular by groups like Guided by Voices and Pavement (amongst a myriad of others). Sure, listening to music that sounds like the cassette tapes you made in elementary school is pretty fun, but sometimes the fuzzy, often incomprehensible noise makes me yearn for some Dolby Digital HDMI and the finest home theater system money can buy.

Enter, The Mantles. While their latest EP – Pink Information – is a fine example of what it means to dwell in the muffled audio of a 1980’s boombox, I can’t help but wonder what this release would sound like if the San Francisco four-piece got their heads (and amps) out of the basement and into a studio like the Golden Gate City’s Record Plant. Don’t get me wrong, this five-track EP is a good collection of songs, and Michael Olivares’ voice is most definitely the best vehicle suited for the Mantles’ brand of fuzzed-out surf rock, but you might want to take a few bong rips before you embark on this journey.

Despite it’s lack of immediate likeability, Pink Information is still an 18-minute, hazy pop joyride that comes with some good riffs (“Cascades”), fuzz (“Summer Read”), and storytelling (“Lilly Never Got Married”). For all that it isn’t, the EP will still grow on you with repeated listens and is most definitely worth the five bucks it costs to download on iTunes (just don’t pay the $30 it costs to own a 12-inch vinyl).

Pink Information comes and goes without any real amazing moments, but the protagonist on the album’s third track – “Lilly Never Got Married” – is the set’s most admirable resident. Appropriately residing in the heart of the EP, she forgoes the promise of love everlasting to take “good care” of her aging parents, and ends up fostering her sister and two aunts as they decay away after mommy and daddy pass away. Still, much like the Mantles’ commitment to making good music, she never waivers, instead living her life as a woman that “never worried and took her time.”

So maybe I should get off the pessimism, take note of Olivares’ observations, and do something that people like me just don’t do anymore – sit back and enjoy an EP like this for what it is: a jangly blast of harmless noise that would brighten up anyone’s day.