Georgia the U.S. state has produced R.E.M., B-52s and Pylon; now its oft-beleaguered namesake in the Caucasus is beginning to catch up.

Green Room, an indie band from Tbilisi, sound like a cross between Grizzly Bear and Moby in his better moments - navigating a tricky terrain between lushness and lo-fi with an ease that suggests a few years in the studio and a hard drive full of Williamsburg's finest. Their debut album, the somewhat ungrammatically titled The Last Minute of Terrorist, is on its way (so, gentlemen, if you self-google and find this, it's not too late to stick an "a" in there). The driving "MushRoom," an impatient, catchy multipart rocker, is clearly what used to be called "the lead single" in more innocent times. "Waltz of Witches" goes from compressed thrash to an actual waltz, with a melody that bites the chord changes from the Beatles' "Do You Want to Know a Secret." All in all, prime hipster bait with serious songwriting to back it up.

Repping the homeland does not appear to be high on the band's priority list (the lyrics to "MushRoom," when you can parse them, yield snatches like "Her name is Kai, she's Japanese" and "the cheapest T-shirt bought on Christmas sale"). Their very existence, however, gives a noticeable new stroke to Georgia's Western image. Just stream a minute of the title track from the band's MySpace: it's not all sheep cheese, cloying wine and territorial conflicts out there.

Green Room [MySpace]