As 2010 draws to a close, the sophomore effort of rambunctious indie punks Titus Andronicus’ The Monitor is poised to appear on many a critic’s best-of list. Titus Andronicus violinist/guitarist Amy Klein, however, has a project of her own by the name of Hilly Eye, a duo consisting of Klein on guitar and Catherine Tung on drums, with both sharing vocal duties. According to Klein herself, Hilly Eye “sounds like Sleater Kinney meets Lightning Bolt meets a watery bridge at the end of town.”

Klein’s description of Hilly Eye’s sound is apt, and their debut EP Fireworks harkens back to those noise rock and post-punk greats of the 80’s, but with a riot-grrrl twist. Fireworks opens with “Jersey City”, a surprisingly harmonic piece of noise punk, with Klein’s yells gliding along a whirlpool of psychedelic guitar and fervently spellbinding drumming from Tung. On “Grand Canyon”, the duo wears their love for Corin Tucker and company on their sleeve in an earnest tribute to the Seattle riot-grrrl sound.

The most fascinating of the four songs on Fireworks is “Double Dutch”, which consists of the sole vocal line “I can see what you are” meekly and faintly repeated under some forceful, blistering guitar shredding that would make Marnie Stern proud. Fireworks closes with some psychedelic guitar swirl on the appropriately-titled “Loopy”. The debut of Hilly Eye is definitely worth a listen, especially since the duo is literally giving away the EP on bandcamp,