There can’t be too many covers of Bacharach/David songs. Especially “Walk On By,” which has been walked around the block by everyone from Isaac Hayes to the Stranglers. This is one that might as well have come from one of those faceless lounge-music slabs of vinyl in the 1960s. Which is a compliment—it captures a mood perfectly, and understands the technology required to make something sound truly Bacharachian. The two originals on this EP sound, if anything, even more true to the period—the soaring, weaving backing vocals, the woody percussion, the flamenco guitars…

Californian is the first of three three-songs EP which Explorers Club is putting out in advance of its second full-length album, Grand Hotel. Each “Suite” contains two songs which will appear on Grand Hotel (albeit mixed differently; Mark Linnett is handling the album versions) plus one cover tune which won’t. The EPs are available free on Amazon.com. Californian Suite is out Oct. 25, with the Carolinian and New Yorker suites following in November and December.

Explorers Club makes the sound assimilations of Wondermints or High Llamas sound distanced or ironic. The elderly should pick up on this band along with the retro-hipsters. I fully expect to see these Suite EPs in the bins alongside 1000 Strings at the local Salvation Army.