If Shonen Knife, Revolver, and Tiger Lillies had a baby, you’d get The Debutante Hour, a New York multi-instrument trio, and the perfect existential addition to any occasion.

The charming Susan Hwang, Mia Pixley, and Maria Sonevytsky maneuver everything from ukeleles to banjos to accordions to glockenspiels underneath their crisp and forceful harmonies. But what sets them apart from one-note Americana gypsy charm is their brilliant, macabre, and knowingly absurd lyrics. Every quirky track is like an exploration into their subconscious; they say the unsayable, but you’re so glad someone said it.

Take “Zombie Zen” off their 2010 debut album The Birth And Death Of Meaning.

“Zombies are zen — except for that insatiable appetite, and then they need you alive.

They need you alive just to make you dead.

See, they’re really for the process, not the wins or the losses, which makes them pretty zen…. It can mess with your head. are they alive or are they dead? They’re that annoying in between, the embodiment of extremes, but in some ways just like us, except for that insatiable appetite for brains and guts. Brains  and guts. Brains and guts.”

Oh man, I was just thinking that.

They’re in New York at the moment, but the Debutante Hour has toured Asia and Europe while garnering name-dropping cred. They even supported Shonen Knife in the UK. (Makes  sense. They’re kind of like Shonen’s crazier little sisters.)

Sample The Birth and Death of Meaning, and check out some videos for “Zombies are Zen” and their earlier single “Hammer Hatchet Chainsaw Gun.”

Photo Credit: MTV Iggy/Nichole McCall