Playful menace Friday, March 10, 2006 MARTY HUGHLEY "You're my girl, and I should be your man But how can I kiss you when my head is in the sand? I told your dad I'd try to pull my life out of the can He said, 'First things first -- you got to get yourself a band!' " That dear old dad in the song "Criminal Offense" may not have had his daughter's best interests at heart, but he did have an ear for talent. Singer-songwriter Jonathan Newsome got himself a band called Miraflores. And while for all we know his life could still be a mess, the band has pulled its first album out of the can, and it's a pure pop delight. Transplanted a few years ago from Savannah, Ga., Miraflores is a trio featuring Newsome on guitar, Travis Brown on bass and backing vocals and Neil Andrews on drums. The bright, cartoonish CD booklet to "Nobody Knows" shows a barefoot woman dancing happily, with plump, golden birds flying through thought-bubble clouds overhead. At times the trio's sound fits such playful, idyllic imagery, most especially in the bubble gum bounce of "Louanne," which sounds like something Jonathan Richman might use to cheer up Marshall Crenshaw. Last week's CD-release show at Mississippi Studios even featured a guy dancing around in a panda suit. But behind the cuddliness are undercurrents of menace that give the songs balance and depth. Newsome's detached, Morrissey-like croon obscures but doesn't blunt the ambition of the character in the opening track, "New Shoes," who vows, "you're gonna bow now, my faulty friend." Similarly, the buoyant melody and tongue-twister lyric of "Like Birds" deliver a jaunty tale of lovers reunited only to wallow in booze and despair. In all, Newsome's persona comes across like that of such nerd-rock progenitors as Richman and David Byrne, among others -- social outsiders trying, sometimes too intently, to charm, weasel or will their way inside. If he's sometimes vaguely disquieting, he's mostly earnest, funny and sweet. And, thankfully, he's pulled his head out of the sand long enough to step up to a microphone.