Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles at the Mint, Los Angeles, June 23

I had the opportunity to catch Sarah Borges and her band, the Broken Singles, at the Mint this week. While I had included her show in my list of recommended shows, I was reminded how much I enjoy Borges as a performer and how I probably didn’t convey that enough in the preview blurb.

The wise-cracking, raven-haired Borges (pronounced like “gorgeous”) certainly is a vivacious frontwoman. Since this is Los Angeles, comparisons can be made to Sandra Bullock (more the feisty Speed model than say the recent All About Steve). Musically, however, she recalls Neko Case back in the days when she played with the Boyfriends, and before she turned into an NPR art-pop darling.

Borges has her own “boyfriends” backing her up: guitarist Lyle Brewster, drummer Robert Larry Dulaney and bassist/comic sidekick Binky. Together they whipped up twangy rock ‘n’ roll that’s part grange and part garage. A good example of their sound would be their energizing cover of the NRBQ’s “It Come To Me Naturally,” a good-natured, roadhouse rave-up that they perform with grit and sass.

So far, Borges has put out 3 full lengths: Silver City (2005), Diamond In The Dark (2007) and The Stars Are Out (2009) – and all are highly recommendable. She’s known on these works almost as much for her excellent array of covers (Stars’ covers range from Smokey Robinson to The Magnetic Fields, for example) as her own originals. And if she hasn’t crafted her own standout signature tune, she certainly has accumulated a very strong set of originals.

At the show, she announced that they have a DVD coming out and have been working on demos for her next CD; efforts that hopefully will give her the popularity that she deserves