Not only is Pennyroyal one of the best new local bands you probably haven't heard, but it also has one of the best stories you'll ever hear about how two people met to form a band.

Angie Oase, the group's blond mohawk-haired frontwoman, was playing solo sets around town in 2009 when she started covering a song called "Sarah," by an obscure Seattle songwriter named Ethan Rutherford.

Lo and behold, one night while Oase performed the song at Anodyne coffee shop in south Minneapolis, there sat a flabbergasted Rutherford, who had just relocated here to attend grad school at the University of Minnesota. Oase, too, was a transplant, having moved from Minot, N.D., to attend Macalester College.

"It was one of those things where you go, 'What are the chances?'" Rutherford said. "We had to do something together after that."

Finding each other across thousands of miles was just the start. Pennyroyal would go on to bridge a cross-section of musical influences to become a band that's hard to peg but easy to appreciate -- part Pretenders-style sass, part Velvet Underground-ian drone, part modern alt-twang.

Rutherford, the guitarist and part-time singer, is the Velvets nut in the group. Oase (pronounced like "ohs") grew up on old-school country and channels Patsy Cline better than a lot of pure-twang singers. Bassist Bill Hoben and drummer Jake Mohan are metalheads who also play in an instrumental hard-rock band, Wizard Fight.

These seemingly disparate influences were part of what made Pennyroyal's 2010 debut album, "Sad Face/Glad Face," such an interesting listen. The quartet sounds much more coalesced and solidified on its follow-up EP, "Places," which it will promote Friday at Cause Spirits & Soundbar.

The visual and emotional focal point of Pennyroyal, Oase, 28, was dealing with conflicted feelings about moving to a big city and coming out as a lesbian when the band formed. Those feelings of alienation are especially prominent in the newer, Spoon-like gem, "Minot."

That song sets the tone for "Places," a five-song collection referencing different towns. "Mad City" is based on a trip to Madison, Wis., where a gig unknowingly got canceled. "New York Kids" riffs on the pursuit of coolness around Brooklyn. Cleveland and New Orleans are the EP's other two stops.

Pennyroyal appears quite content staying put in Minneapolis in the coming months. Other upcoming gigs include a May 13 in-store at Hymie's Records (3 p.m.) and a May 18 slot during the 331 Club's Art-a-Whirl bash. One reason for putting out the EP now was to round out all these set lists.

Ironically, one song the band never includes in its sets is "Sarah," the one that originally brought its leaders together. "We've tried it, but it just doesn't work," Oase said.

Rutherford, who's married (to a woman not named Sarah), laughingly added, "I've moved on anyway."