Candy Hearts Sounds "Like If Taylor Swift Was in the Lemonheads" Plus Green Day

Mariel Loveland wants you to know she plays in a band. She doesn't date the band.

Loveland sings and plays guitar for the indie pop-punk group Candy Hearts. The band will be in South Florida this Thursday. And while the trio is here, you probably shouldn't ask if she's the merch girl or spooning her drummer, or she might just write about you.

Her essay for Vice, "How to Survive Being the Only Girl in a Band," tells, among other things, how to"squat and pee" or shower in a bathroom sink backstage.

She told New Times, just this summer on Warped Tour, "There was this band there who asked how I got this great gig being the merch girl, and if I was dating anyone in the band. That kind of stuff happens all the time."

See also: Candy Hearts' Mariel Loveland on Touring with New Found Glory, "It's a Dream Come True."

Loveland teased, "I was like, 'Oh yeah, I'm dating everyone in the band at one time.'" Until she realized they weren't joking. "I was like 'Oh my God. You're serious?'"

Despite the misogynistic assumptions, the band is doing just fine. She described its sound as "kind of like if Taylor Swift was in the Lemonheads with members of Green Day playing instruments."

Candy Hearts was just named one of the "Top 10 New School Pop-Punk Bands You Need To Know" by Billboard online. "I was super psyched because I always felt like if we were covered in a larger magazine like Rolling Stone or Billboard it would be really cool," Loveland gushed. "That's how I judged [if bands were] legitimate when I was younger. It does in a way kind of validate me."

Loveland also takes comfort in the fact that there are people in South Florida who know what Candy Hearts is. After all, she said, the band got its "first stage diver" here. It performed South Florida venues like Culture Room and the Talent Farm (RIP) in the past. "It always feels like a hometown show," she said, "The crowds are the best."

Candy Hearts is sharing this tour with pop-punk and alternative acts Seaway, Stickup Kid, and Driver Friendly. Its South Florida stop will also be accompanied by local acts Funkman's Inferno and Stillframe.

"We don't know why we're on the bill," joked Stillframe's drummer Kyle Lacoste. "We suck and we're unattractive." The Stillframe guys -- who are based out of Cooper City -- are the new kids on the scene; the outfit less is than a year old. Its debut EP, Everything That Used to Weigh Me Down capitalizes on group singalongs, catchy choruses, and major chord progressions chucked through two guitars. Vocalist Marc Sorrentino evokes an angry Dan "Soupy" Campbell of The Wonder Years, with a similar rasp, more angst, and less sadness. Sorrentino professionalized the answer, "We're excited to be on a show featuring such a wide variety of music."

The show will take place at Sunrise venue, Anonymous Guitars on August 7, where Candy Hearts will continue to promote its new album, All The Ways You Let Me Down, which was released in early June and peaked at No. 33 on Billboard's Heatseekers Albums Chart.

"We were a little bit nervous because it's a little more pop than before," Loveland explained, describing the group's new album as a middle ground between its first LP and its EP, The Best Ways to Disappear. "It has a lot of '90s influence, but it's more polished." Overall, she's satisfied, "I think [the reception's] been really great,"

Candy Hearts with Seaway, Stickup Kid, Driver Friendly, Funkman's Inferno, and Stillframe, 6 p.m., Thursday, August 7, at Anonymous Guitars, 10778 NW 53rd St., Sunrise.. Tickets cost $12. Visit Facebook.

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