Sleigh Bells enjoys surprising ride

• What: Sleigh Bells, in concert.

• When: 8 p.m. May 26.

• Where: Roseland Theater, 8 N.W. Sixth Ave., Portland.

• Cost: $18, through TicketsWest, 800-992-8499 or http://ticketswest.com.

• Information: http://roselandpdx.com.

Sleigh Bells was a buzz band for six months without an important weapon in any act’s arsenal — a record.

Now, after playing such high-profile festivals as Coachella in California and South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, and generating all kinds of interest in its pop-meets-metal-meets-electro-beat music, Sleigh Bells has an album called “Treats” that fans can take home from its shows or buy online or in stores.

“We really want people to hear it,” said singer Alexis Krauss, noting that she and her partner, Derek Miller, grew tired of fans’ asking whether the duo had any CDs available. “We know what it sounds like and we’re excited about it.”

“Treats,” an 11-song disc that clocks in at just over 30 minutes, is plenty to listen to, justifying the buzz with its combination of pop hooks, ethereal vocals, electronics and slashing guitar.

It’s received glowing reviews, contributing to the hype that has made the Brooklyn duo one of the hottest new bands going and a perfect example of how the Internet can create overnight sensations in the digitally driven 21st century.

Krauss is taken a little aback by all the attention her fledgling band is receiving. But she realizes that is as much a product of the times as anything.

“With the Internet, everything goes viral so quickly,” she said. “There’s such a quick turnover. As quickly as something goes big, it can disappear. We’re fully aware of that. … We’re just kind of going with it. What else can you do?”

“Going with” has meant snapping up chances that generally don’t come to bands that played their first shows only a year and a half earlier.

“It was pretty surreal,” Krauss said of Coachella, attended by tens of thousands, many who likely didn’t know much about Sleigh Bells and its sound. “It was the first time we’ve played on a stage that large and to a crowd that large. But I think we did pretty well.”

The Coachella show furthered the Sleigh Bells hype, but added a new, not entirely welcome term to the buzz: rap metal.

“It’s so funny,” Krauss said. “It was a great review, I think the Los Angeles Times was first, they used the buzzword, and it catches on with others. Derek and I are like ‘Really? Rap metal?’ We don’t see it.”

Nothing on “Treats” sounds like rap metal. From the rifle-shot intro of “Tell ‘Em” through the closing title cut a half-hour later, the record puts Krauss’s sweet, vocals over Miller’s slashing guitar and some hard-edged beats.

“Riot Rhythm” clatters and bangs, “Infinity Guitars” is essentially riff and rhythm, and the very short “Straight As” is definitely punk metal, but Krauss’s shouted vocals on it have nothing to do with rap.

“Actually, it’s pop music,” she said. “It works on a lot of strong hooks and riffs. There may be one song, called ‘Kids,’ that has a flow to it. But I don’t think of it as rapping, and I’m not a rapper.”

Krauss was in the teen pop group RubyBlue before temporarily giving up music to become a teacher in a Bronx public school in New York.

Miller had played in the Florida hardcore band Poison the Well. Kraus met him in 2008, when she and her mother stopped into a restaurant and he was their server. Mom struck up a conversation and Miller eventually revealed that he’d moved to Brooklyn to find a female singer for a project he envisioned.

Krauss and Miller got together a week later and began making music.

“We’d get together and record and I’d go back into the classroom,” she said. “It was pretty crazy. Then we decided to go full time.”

They played their first shows in September 2009, and began touring in the late winter/early spring of 2010, primarily opening for Yeasayer, while making stops at the festivals. That gave the duo a chance to connect with an exuberant live show in which Krauss literally throws herself into the music.

“I don’t want it to be passive,” she said of her performance. “For me, I don’t like to go to shows where the bands just stand there. It’s a show, that’s what I want when I see a band. I want to see something I can’t picture when I’m in my room listening to the record. I want to see something exciting. That’s what I try to do.”

Thrashing around the stage, however, is a stretch for Krauss, who repeatedly used the word shy to describe herself.

“In person, I’m not in any way similar to how I am on stage,” she said. “I’m a pretty shy reserved person. I have to push myself to an extreme to get through it. The music is pretty energetic. I’m definitely feeling the music’s aggressiveness when I’m up there. But also the low end, which is danceable and fun.”