A sweet songwriter who cares for catchy rhythms and hooks. A supportive, up-for-anything pop band to back her. The Shellye Valauskas Experience’s Box It Up is a box of secrets, surprises and delights. By the time she formed the band, vocalist/guitarist Shellye Valauskas was an established solo performer, winning the New Haven Advocate’s Grand Band Slam readers’ poll and rating a slot in New York’s CMJ Marathon. As her songwriting collaborator and bandmate, she enlisted ace guitarist Dean Falcone, who’s served the Connecticut music scene since the early ’80s with Jon Brion in The Excerpts, his own Dean and the Dragsters, and a host of others. Valauskas and Falcone’s shared love for the intelligent, heartwarming yet punchy pop of Crowded House, The Posies and Aimee Mann, as well as the burgeoning Americana movement, helped them nail a distinctive yet accessible radio-friendly sound from the start. Drummer Bruce Crowder quickly mastered the intricate pacings and style shifts of the songs. The band’s also been well served by a succession of team-player bassists, including Eric Lichter (who plays on the EP) and the new recruit Chuck Roscoe (a veteran of roots bands such as The Motel Preachers and The Sawbucks). In its native Connecticut, the band is as comfortable at major outdoor festivals such as the Meriden Daffodil Festival or New Haven’s Ideat Village as they are music-friendly bars like Café Nine, the site of the Oct. 25th Box It Up release party. The Box It Up EP, was produced at Boston’s Q Division studios by Falcone and Ed Valauskas (Shellye’s brother, Dean’s old bandmate in One Hundred Faces, and the celebrated bassist for The Gravel Pit, The Gentlemen and Juliana Hatfield) contains the first new songs Shellye and Dean have written since Shellye’s acclaimed 2001 solo album The Stupid Truth. The poetic lyrics probe all the delicacy, delirium and disappointments of modern relationships. “Sorry only works so many times,” Valauskas sings on “40 Things”, shortly before the songs leaps into its gorgeous upbeat chorus. “Box It Up” and “This Side of Goodbye” both build gradually from intimate confessions (“Maybe I expect too much”; “I don’t know how to talk to you”) into grand guitar-fueled statements that will have you swaying, swooning and singing along. “Couldn’t Find the Time” has a darker feel, while “Hard to See’ verges into psychedelic territory, except for Valauskas’ reassuringly warm and humane voice. Mix it up with Box It Up. Experience The Shellye Valauskas Experience at www.shellye.net and at www.myspace.com/theshellyevalauskasexperience