St. Louis may have a Bureau, but Chicago has an Office.

The power pop band will help make this year’s Play:STL festival lineup a strong one when they play Cicero’s Friday night.

Office’s vibe has been described as “hand claps and sunny harmonies” set against lyrics that evoke dark clouds. The music is grainy, but hook-filled, a la Stephen Malkmus, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Neutral Milk Hotel and, closer to home, Gentleman Auction House.

The band has experienced some highs and lows of late. It started out as a musical extension of art-schooler Scott Masson’s musings on the cold and impersonal nature of business culture. By 2006, they were signed to James Iha’s Scratchie/New Line label, had a Single of the Week on iTunes and were featured in magazines such as Spin. Shortly after the release of their label debut, A Night at the Ritz, the band revealed that the relationship wasn’t as ‘win/win’ as they had hoped. They quickly took themselves ‘out of the loop’ by negotiating a split with the label.

Now starting over from scratch, Office is in the unique position of having close to a decade’s worth of releases that are either unavailable (out of print early stuff) or unwanted (Ritz).

“I’d tell them to sell it,” is what Masson would say to a new purchaser of Ritz. “Or send me a case of beer and I’ll send a better sounding version to them.”

While a new release is due out in January (Mecca), the band can’t sell their back catalog for a whopping nine years as part of their contract termination. But they are allowed to give it away.

“There is a very good chance I’ll release it for free on the Internet,” Masson said.

A Barack Obama supporter, Masson cracked up when asked if he had written a song about Sarah Palin yet.

“I haven’t and I really should,” he said. “I’m going to get on that now. That song would just write itself. Maybe I could send it to the NHL!”

Office at Play:STL festival

9:45 pm Friday, Cicero’s main stage

$15 for a three-day wristband

www.myspace.com/officemusic

www.playstlfest.com