Whither Imperial Teen? It’s been almost four years since their last album, On, and since then the world has had to survive without new infusions of keyboard-powered power pop goodness from the San Francisco group. For a band that has seen more than its fair share of failed flirtation with the big time, Imperial Teen hung on longer than most of its mid-90s compatriots, but perhaps eight years was simply too much.

Everyone has a nostalgic sweet spot when it comes to music; it’s practically guaranteed that you will consider everything you listened to in high school to be awesome, and everything five years before and five years after to be absolute shit. In fact, a good way to figure out when someone went to high school is to ask them what their favourite one-hit wonders were. Belinda Carlisle and Snap? End of the 80s. Frankie Goes To Hollywood? Earlier than that. For me, the sweet spot is mid-90s radio-friendly alternative, back when people were still grappling with the apparent meaningless of the term “alternative” instead of accepting that labels are mostly worthless, as people do now. (That lesson wouldn’t come until “electronica,” now useful only as a catch-all for late-90s jungle remixes and big beat artists like Fatboy Slim.) Some of my favourite one-hit wonders? Harvey Danger, Superdrag, Semisonic and Imperial Teen, who had a minor hit with “You’re One” in 1995. “You’re One” was an undeniably catchy pop song, and quite the change of pace for Roddy Bottum—his previous gig was keyboardist for hard rock group Faith No More.

What’s strange about a lot of those artists is that by and large, they didn’t appear out of nowhere; these bands had fairly successful indie careers before their brief day in the spotlight, and many continued to have careers afterwards. 2 Unlimited would probably find it hard to claim the same. The most obvious example is Nada Surf, who even today is attempting to claw their way back to something resembling relevance by opening for the likes of Rilo Kiley. Unfortunately, Nada Surf have also apparently forgotten to bring something new or interesting to the table, a problem Imperial Teen has never had. From 1995’s Seasick all the way to 2002’s On, Imperial Teen have been delivering the goods. No band that can deliver the laidback blissout of “Undone” or the spine-tingling dance sensation of “Ivanka” deserves the relative obscurity Imperial Teen has had. With On, the band was transitioning nicely from major label near-success on Warner to a smaller, more dedicated fan base with Merge. But then the band disappeared into the ether, making appearances here and there but remaining mum on the subject of new material.

So that was the story of Imperial Teen. Until earlier this year, anyways: turns out eight years wasn’t too much. A brief note on their website, still done up in 2002 livery, at last confirms that the band hasn’t broken up and is prepping a new album. With indie rock becoming more baroque and boring with every passing year, the return of Imperial Teen will hopefully be a breath of fresh air.