Sassy and saucy, wistful and dreamy, San Francisco's indie-pop sweethearts The Corner Laughers combine rock-and-roll attitude with book smarts and open hearts to create a sound all their own.

Their wry-and-witty yet sincere lyrics range from wide-eyed romanticism to tales of the ancient past and distant future to snappy snark and sarcasm without missing a beat, all to a backdrop of bouncy, melodic and engaging music featuring female vocals heavy on harmony, ukulele, guitars and a first-class rhythm section. It's the sizzling fun of summer mixed with the melancholy mood of autumn.

The Corner Laughers may appear cute and cuddly but, like any wild creature, they can go from purr to hiss from one track to the next, with surprising dexterity. Though the admittedly bookish band members spend their weekdays toiling in newsrooms and science labs, their one true love is the unique musical universe they've developed.

Singer/ukuleleist Karla Kane and guitarist Angela Silletto met a decade ago as two of the few artsy loners in a sea of Catholic prep-school students and quickly declared they would form a band called The Corner Laughers, based on admiration for those who could remain amused and observant from the sidelines of this ridiculous world. Despite having neither instruments nor musical experience, the two began composing melodies on a single, shared keyboard and recording secret songs in dorm-room privacy while earning degrees in archaeology and biology. Once Angela obtained a red electric guitar (thanks dad) and Karla was brave enough to sing out loud, their music began to take on a recognizable form, showing the influences of many genres and sounds but always remaining infectiously catchy and emotionally resonant.

Friendship with the multi-talented Khoi Huynh, a local pop-scene luminary, allowed The Corner Laughers to evolve into an entity that was ready to go public. With Huynh as the bass player, the band released its debut album, "Tomb of Leopards" (named after an Etruscan burial site) in 2006 and began performing regularly.

Once bad-ass drummer Charlie Crabtree (the only non-bespectacled member) was lured into the group the following year, the band reached new heights in attitude and power. The Corner Laughers also found a kindred spirit in The Orange Peels' Allen Clapp, who produced their brand-new album, " Ultraviolet Garden ," at his cozy Mystery Lawn Studio. Clapp's guidance has greatly expanded the band's arsenal of shimmery sounds, helping them incorporate a range of instruments including tangy and twangy vintage guitars and ukes, spacey echo boxes from the Eichler age, inhumanly precise tambourines, heavenly harpsichords and layers of angelic vocals.

"Ultraviolet Garden" (the title referring to elements of nature invisible to the human eye) was released in the fall of 2009, on mentor John Wesley Harding's Popover label, and is already earning rave reviews and appearing on critics' best-of-year lists.

Called by reviewers, "as clever as it is charming," with "a grace and ambience that is miles beyond what went before" and "stocked with great songs from top to bottom," "Ultraviolet Garden" contains songs about Italian catacombs, martyred saints, extinct California megafauna, ghosts suspended in time, Mayan villages, the Armageddon of all life on earth and, of course, guys who are jerks. Its scope is epic yet the songs are always deeply personal.

With buzz around the band growing, The Corner Laughers, once content to snicker shyly from the sidelines, are stepping into the spotlight and ready to take on the world, one pop song at a time.