The Chances (they are the Chances, with a lowercase t, but I had to capitalize it to indicate the start of a new sentence) are a sultry Los Angeles-based trio comprised of Michael Runion, Sara Sinclair, and Julia Barna. When you listen to their music, there is a very good chance that you will want to make out with someone (anyone, really, it’s just THAT good). Currently I’m listening to their debut single “No Escape” on repeat while daydreaming about riding ferris wheels and holding hands and collecting seashells barefoot on the beach with my sweetheart who just asked me if I want to go steady with him (it’s 1956 in my daydream ok?). With their velvety sound and playful onstage banter, you’ll be thrust back to a magical time of nightclub crooners, malt shoppes, and dancing shoes. Perhaps the best way to put it is that they make you feel a little under-dressed, but in a good way. The elegance that they so effortlessly exude is something that Los Angeles (no offense to my hometown, and theirs too) often lacks. I (with the help of my more musically inclined boyfriend) have dubbed their genre “New-Wop,” and I expect it will catch on.

The Chances did their thing at Hemingway’s in Hollywood earlier this week, with Jason Boesel (of Rilo Kiley and Bright Eyes) on drums and Sam Sugarman playing bass. After the show, Michael scrambled to fill out the rest of this questionnaire for you guys (me). Check them out and follow them on Twitter and all that jazz, if only for the fact that I don’t know another white girl who is not dead and not British that can sing like Sara does.

http://www.myspace.com/thechancesmusic

http://twitter.com/thechances

(photos by Rick Rodney)