Kimono my house: Zap Mama's Marie Daulne made a grand entrance and went on to dazzle the twirling sold-out crowd at the Fillmore April 28. Guardian photo by Mirissa Neff

At the county fair, natch – and the season is about to hit us like a case of lip synching-induced acid reflux, brought on by too many deep-fried Three Musketeers and too many churns on the Tilt-a-Whirl. Here you can see acts on their way up (I caught the first squeals of preteen girlie hysteria at the inauspicious Bay Area debut of 'N Sync at the Santa Clara County corn-dog bash back in the late '90s), down (and I'll always cherish my Rick Nielsen guitar pick from an admirably full-throttle, trucker-ass-to-the-grass performance at San Mateo County's hoedown, a step down from headlining the Iowa State Fair years earlier) – or something else altogether (nice to see Keanu Reeves taking a break from his Matrix shoot to play it cool and mute with Dogstar in Petaluma four years ago).

All that sometimes-kickass free music and cotton candy, butter cows, exhibits of amateur art/future thrift-store art finds, prize chickens, chili cook-offs, and lots of rides to throw up on. Make fun of the fair as much as you want – how else are you supposed to see Radio Disney's Stevie Brock (Aug. 16, Kids' Day, at the San Mateo fair) or, uh, Loverboy (Aug. 19, San Mateo) if you're 12 and you don't wanna drag your parent along as your date.

So yeah, naturally you'd expect hot young New York City hepcats like Robbers on High Street to smile, eat the funnel cake, and do the fair circuit, opening for Fountains of Wayne in the parking lot of the Meadowlands and then old New Kid on the Block Jordan Knight. Not.

"I don't know what the hell anyone was thinking. I think it was more like, it's on the way to the next show and they'll pay you a lot of money," Robbers on High Street's pleasingly frank vocalist-guitarist-keyboardist Ben Trokan says over the phone on his way to Atlanta. "Jordan Knight was pretty cool. He was just hanging out backstage drinking a beer."

The high-spirited Robbers couldn't keep their cool, however, when it came to the boy-band aspirations of a Disney Channel performer named Jerry, who was cavorting with a headset and backup dancers. "Me and Steve [Mercado, guitarist-vocalist] took it upon ourselves to join them onstage for an improv dance-along," the 26-year-old Trokan nonchalantly recalls. "The crowd liked, and the security crowds liked it, but I don't think Jerry liked it."

You have to watch those Robbers all the time – even as their latest album, Tree City (New Line), takes hold with its lush, overgrown, admittedly David Bowie-and-Ray Davies-like song stylings. I'll refrain from a metaphor-extending Hamburger Helper of a wisecrack here about buzz and bees, but it turns out the foursome (which also includes drummer Tomer Danan and new bassist Morgan King; Jeremy Phillips left because, according to Trokan, "he was a much better artist than bass player and he needed us to tell him that") have a knack for freshening up even the most boppy, naughty-prep-school-hipster clichés. The band, for all their naked honesty, make the most of melodies that don't shy away from the romantic jugular and lyrics that snatch glimpses of urban life, with a "roomy etherealness" reminiscent of classic rock from the late '60s and early '70s. Named for leafy Poughkeepsie, N.Y., where Trokan and Mercado grew up, Tree City isn't quite The Village Green Preservation Society, but it's a step in that still fresh, green, and leafy direction with its loose saga of country boys adjusting to big-city life.

"It's sort of our story, and sort of about finding your place. New York was very electrifying and intimidating," explains Trokan, who has known Mercado since they were 12. He moved to NYC to attend CUNY in '99, and began the band with his pal three years later, in what he calls "the post-9/11, post-Strokes" universe. He found his lyrics while people-watching on trains and on the street, riffing off smash-ups between cultures and "trying to read more into more mundane things that happen, probably more than I should."

The compulsively catchy "Bring on the Terror," for instance, indirectly tackles the Sept. 11 aftermath with its take on paranoia and joblessness. The propulsive "Japanese Girls," Trokan says, is about "guys I knew that were just into dating Asian women. I never met so many and never witnessed the phenomenon before." (Oh, and what is it about this Lost in Translation-like detail, popping up like a decorative, trendy embellishment in songs by bands like Louis XVI these days? Haven't any of these guys ever seen an Asian chick before?)

"Spanish Teeth" was brought on after an incident on New York's A train. "It was busy and rush hour, and I sort of had to cram in the door, and there was this really attractive Puerto Rican woman fighting with her boyfriend, and when I bumped into her, she really let me have it. She was really pissed off. But it was a really sexy thing too, sort of – to be chewed out publicly, with this nice accent."

Public humiliation as a form of foreplay – I begin to see a pattern emerging as Trokan tells me about their current cargo shorts-and-frat house tour of Big 10 colleges with Cake and Gomez ("I still haven't figured out Gomez yet. It's sort of like straight-up pop songs, but they have this drum setup that's like Neil Peart or something, with gongs and congas and stuff"). "It's been pretty adventure-free so far, but we still managed to piss off some people on this tour, but I think they'll get over it," he says. "Stupid, silly stuff – there's a crew, and if you're five minutes off, they hate you. There's hierarchy and politics, and we're like the little guy – no one's going to yell at Cake and Gomez, but they'll yell at us."

Meanwhile Trokan will have to get his kicks planning a tour with his current favorite NYC band, King of France (which includes writer Michael Azzerrad on drums), perhaps making enough money to pay his bills on time ("Yeah, no late fees is a goal"), and dealing with the arrival of Robbers reality, in the form of their tune "Love Underground," on The O.C. "My Fox Five fantasy has sort of been breached, because before now that show was a complete nonreality for me, and that's how I got sucked into it," he mildly gripes. "It's the problems of teenagers with the crusts cut off, and everything is saved by rich white parents. But now one of my songs is gonna be on this, and it's sort of ruined it for me."

Cowabunga Speaking of livestock and country kids made good, the Zincs' James Elkington has plenty to complain about regarding rural living. Nowadays he may bunk down in Chicago – home to his label, Thrill Jockey – but back in the day, he did his time, growing up in Chorleywood, a village outside London. "It's pretty much fields and cows and drunk teenagers walking across fields, carrying large bottles of cider," he told me before the Zincs set off on their first tour. Endless strolls figured into the band's Noise Pop show this spring as well. "I had to walk to 12 Galaxies from Bottom of the Hill. It looked like three miles, and there aren't many taxis coming down there. But I've never been so fucking exhausted – MapQuest didn't talk about the hills." ... Oakland Faders recently flexed their mix-mastery muscles when they won Scion's "Free Your Mix" mix tape contest, judged by Jazzy Jeff, Premier, Pete Rock, and Madlib, among others. Consider their May 26 at DNA Lounge a celebration, although they also regularly hold it down every Friday at Luka's Tap Room and Lounge in Oakland.... Prank the Dean, Patton Oswalt opener Jasper Redd, and the Sound of Young America's Jordan Morris yuk it up at Club Chuckles' "All Tomorrow's Jokes" at the Hemlock Tavern. And what costume shall this poor clown wear?

Robbers on High Street play Thurs/5, Popscene, 330 Ritch, S.F. $5-$8. (415) 541-9574, www.popscene-sf.com. They also play with Cake, Gomez, and Vonyse Fri/6, 7 p.m., San Jose State Events Center, San Jose. $25. www.ticketmaster.com.

Zincs play with Monade Fri/6, 10 p.m., Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St., S.F. $12. (415) 621-4455. 'All Tomorrow's Jokes' takes place May 13, 9 and 11:30 p.m., Hemlock Tavern, 1131 Polk, S.F. $7. (415) 923-0923, www.hemlocktavern.com.

Oakland Faders perform May 26, 9:30 p.m., DNA Lounge, S.F. $5. (415) 626-1409, www.dnalounge.com.

See you at cudgel check at the Ren Faire; e-mail kimberly@sfbg.com.

Contact Kimberly Chun at kimberly@sfbg.com.