For the Rentals, a new lease on life

Nearly 12 years after their cheekily titled debut, “The Return of the Rentals” -- and eight years after their follow-up album -- the Rentals have truly returned. And, my, how things have changed. Right, Matt Sharp?

“Yeah,” the singer-guitarist deadpans, “when we started, we didn’t have a website address on our CDs.” Now Sharp and gang resurface on a “massively changed” musical landscape with the Internet as marketer, distributor, biographer and critic. “It’s not all negative, it’s not all positive,” Sharp says, “but a lot more people have an equal chance to be heard; it’s a little bit more of a level platform.”

The Rentals become players again with “The Last Little Life” EP (out now on eMusic with a physical release Aug. 14 on Canadian indie Boompa Records). Three new tracks offer the band’s signature sticky melodies, synthesizer-fueled bounce and boy-girl vocals, and there is a reworking of “Sweetness and Tenderness” off the first album.

“This came very naturally -- it was the right time, the right rhythm for the band, and it felt honest,” says the ex-Weezer bassist, who took the Rentals on a 2006 tour and found that the group that gave us “Friends of P” still had plenty of friends. In Japan, they played to as many as 12,000.

The sextet features only one other contributor from that original album, singer-bassist Rachel Haden (ex-That Dog). The rest of the lineup includes Lauren Chipman, Sara Radle, Dan Joeright and Ben Pringle. A full-length album is planned for early next year.

“I know some people think the Internet means the death of the song cycle, and that people only write for very short attention spans,” Sharp says. “But at this point we’ll continue to write for a longer thought process.”

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-- Kevin Bronson

The Rentals, with Goldenboy, Spaceland, 1717 Silver Lake Blvd., L.A. 8:30 p.m. every Saturday in July. $18. (323) 661-4380; www.clubspaceland.com.