If Portland had a house band, it’d probably be Genders. The four-piece plays around town all the time, tours nonstop (with Built to Spill, no less), and cranks out new music like a goddamn machine—most recently an EP called Phone Home that they’re celebrating tonight. Its five songs are catchy, riding the line between hazy guitar-rock and sunshiny Coke-commercial pop like they’re on autopilot. They’ve mastered a sound that’s sweet and mild, with a foundation built on honeyed harmonies and layers of reverb-heavy guitar. It sounds great; I can’t say I dislike any Genders song. But on Phone Home, the band stays in the same lane they’ve been in since forming four years ago, and I can’t help but wish they’d pull the rug out from under themselves and try something wild. A few months ago I saw them do a blistering cover of a Sheryl Crow song at Mississippi Studios, and it was delivered with the kind of gory emotional rawness that subverts predictability. This EP is another link in Genders’ daisy chain of solid releases, but here’s hoping they’ll weave in something thorny soon. CIARA DOLAN