If New Orleans is a candy store, consider Loyola its Willy Wonka. To take this analogy further, Big Rock Candy Mountain would be the oversized pinwheel lollipop.

This supergroup’s saccharine guitar-pop is as big as its name. Founded in November 2007, the band includes some of Loyola’s heavyweights, including Antenna Inn, The City Life, Fay Wray and Glasgow!

After his departure from Glasgow!, guitarist Andrew Hartsock, graphic arts senior, teamed with bassist Stephen MacDonald, music industries studies senior; keyboardist Michael Girardot, music industries studies senior; and drummer Leo DeJesus, A’07.

“We’ve played together so many times,” Hartsock said. “It was inevitable.”

But with their whirlwind of influences and other musical adventures, Hartsock said their resulting sound became a “happy accident” despite his Wall of Sound plans.

“I particularly listen to too much metal. But we all have our own genres we listen to,” he said.

That accident combines sugary, bright guitars and Beach Boy harmonies with dance-heavy synths, but under their sweet candy shell are slow-melting, stoner-metal riffs not unlike those of the Butthole Surfers.

MacDonald and Girardot, both of Fay Wray and Antenna Inn fame, trade their horns for bass and keyboards, respectively. DeJesus, former drummer for defunct powerpop outfit Survey Says and current singer and guitarist of The City Life, has no problem at the throne, according to Hartsock.

The band makes its debut at the Hi-Ho Lounge on March 1 with Smiley with a Knife and White Colla Crimes. They are also one of the bands competing in Loyola’s Battle of the Bands on Friday, March 7.

You can listen to Big Rock Candy Mountain at http://www.myspace.com/brcmmusic.

Alex Woodward can be reached at [email protected].