A track on a couple soundtracks, buzz spewing from the URLs of a few hundred bloggers, some decent press in Spin – used to be that was enough to get you a record label deal. The Eames Era may not have found the going so easy, but after a wonderful little set at Iota on Monday night, they seem poised for a bigger breakthrough.

The band’s basically four dudes – two guitars, bass, drums – backing the cute and bubbly Ashlin Phillips. Phillips is the kind of frontwoman who turns an everyday indie pop band into something to write home about. She’s the only one really moving on stage, but she moves a lot and quite well too – if the Pipettes are ever looking for a fourth, they need not look any further.

The songs rarely deviate from straightforward indie pop. The two guitars provide the texture and the drive, the bass and drums the foundation, and the vocals give the performances their icing, or their gooey center, or whatever sweet-tooth-pop-hook analogy you prefer. When the guitarists weren’t cracking dead pan jokes – after the second song, one of them dryly quipped, “So far, this is the best show we’ve ever played” – they were chiming along with new wave interplay or just a set of pleasantly ringing chords. After taking the usually bouncy “Little Brother” slowly, the band hit their stride on the yelping, dance-y “When You Were a Millionaire.” The set stayed in the mid-tempo to fast range throughout, which allowed them to keep a sturdy pace while running through “Both Hands Full,” “I Am A Thing,” and the surf-tinged “Last to Know.” Surprisingly, there was no “Fake Do-Gooders”, but closing with the funny a cappella of “Dear Gabby” compensated.

Other songs (“Benjamin,” “Watson On Your Side”) reminded us a lot of Elephant 6 alums like Essex Green, and consequently it’s hard to make the argument that they’ve got a really original thing going on. Standard indie arrangements yield uncommonly catchy and often witty songs performed by a hip and cute lead singer? Sounds like a recipe for blogosphere success to me.