Photos: LAKE, Morning Ritual @ Mississippi Studios, 9.19.13

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LAKE is an Olympia indie-pop band with a handful of charming albums, including two this year alone. The group’s latest is The World is Real, a K Records set full of soft-focus recordings with winsome feelings and ’60s inheritance. Call ’em Saturday Still Looks Good To Me. (Co-frontperson Ashley Eriksson, also a recent live member of Mount Eerie, has a solo debut out that’s among the year’s best records.) Live, the band’s sound was sharp and clear, a blend of bright dance grooves, the geometric shapes of ’90s indie guitar chords and innocent melodies. Like an Instagram photo, the band felt a bit naked with no filters — the songs unsure of what they’d like to be today, a dance party or a Lovin’ Spoonful homage. Not that they should be in a rush. Morning Ritual, an impressive seven-piece, opened with a refreshing sound: jazz-student chops supporting gentle soul harmonies, with songs that built into free-ranging solos and segues.