Not even five years ago, the members of the Seattle-based punk band Tacocat were living separate lives, concentrating on full-time jobs instead of their music. Singer Emily Nokes was working as the music editor of a Seattle weekly paper, guitarist Eric Randall was toiling away as a dishwasher, and drummer Lelah Maupin had moved across the country to New York City.

Such obstacles explain the six-year gap between the release of their first two LPs. Now that the member are all focusing on the band and living in one place, their third studio album, Lost Time, is due to be released April 1, just two relatively short years since their breakthrough sophomore effort NVM.

Tacocat is a full-time job now. Everyone’s favorite palindromic feminist punk band has gained the attention of critics and audiences alike for a style of fuzzy pop-punk that toes the line between honest, relatable social commentary and lighthearted, undeniably catchy fun.

Myspace caught up with the band members shortly before the release of Lost Time to talk about the past, present and future of Tacocat. Here are 10 things you should know about Tacocat.

The Title of Their Latest Album is an ‘X-Files’ Reference

Plenty of Tacocat’s songs reference the pop culture of yesteryear, but the title of Lost Time is more than just a tip of the hat to the original run of The X-Files. It also acknowledges what that long gap between albums ultimately felt like, nodding to a difficult band history they’ve now firmly overcome. “It felt like lost time because we were working really hard but didn’t know what we were doing,” says bassist Bree McKenna.

They’re Not a Surf Band

The members of Tacocat don’t like being pigeonholed. In particular, they complain that numerous fans and publications have incorrectly called their straightforward pop-punk surf rock. The incorrect label did help inspire their one and only surf song, “Crimson Wave” from their album NVM, which isn’t really about surfing. Instead, it’s another reference, this time to the 1995 classic Clueless and its creative euphemism for menstruation. “We’ll show them a surf song,” laughs McKenna.

They Write Songs About Things That Annoy Them

Rather than hiding behind obscure lyrics, the members of Tacocat confront relatable everyday annoyances through song and cheeky humor. “I think it’s important to vent these frustrations,” says McKenna. The same mocking irreverence that informed NVM standout tracks like the cat-call-shaming “Hey Girl” is back with a vengeance on Lost Time. The distorted doo-wop tirade against drunk out-of-towners that is “I Hate the Weekend,” for example, draws upon the band members’ experience in the service industry.

They Find Inspiration From All Kinds of Bands

When Tacocat first formed, they didn’t decide upon any sort of message or even their particular genre. “I would have never thought I was going to be in a pop-punk band,” says Maupin. Though they may have found their sound, each band member continues to bring outside influence to the table. They find inspiration in everything from the satiric edge of Devo to the lifelong commitment to music of the late David Bowie.

They Played In a Taylor Swift Cover Band

Speaking of unlikely influences, a brief stint playing as a Taylor Swift cover band for a Halloween party gave Tacocat the chance to appreciate the combined simplicity and ingenuity of great pop songs. “We learned her songs and realized how simple they are. We tried to figure out what makes the songs so catchy and compelling still.” In fact, all of the band members have spent time playing as part of less serious local acts, using each unique experience to bring something new to the table for Lost Time.

Their Songwriting is Still Evolving, Collectively

“There’s a huge leap from our last album to this album in a relatively short period of time,” says Randall of Lost Time. Their songwriting is always evolving as they learn more about the music they want to make, whether from Nokes’s time on the journalism side of the music industry or simply from paying better attention to the music they love.

“All of us got really into dissecting what we love about our favorite songs,” says McKenna.

Erik Blood Produced Their New Album

The musical leap forward of Lost Time owes something to the work of the album’s producer, Erik Blood, best known for his work with hip-hop artists like Shabazz Palaces and TheeSatisfaction. Tacocat says they came into the studio with the basic outlines of their songs, but Blood took the lead in filling the songs out sonically in ways they wouldn’t have even known were possible. “He really did amazing things with our sound on this album,” says Maupin.

They Wrote the New Powerpuff Girls Theme Song

The producers behind Cartoon Network’s upcoming revival of their girl power friendly series The Powerpuff Girls contacted Tacocat with the opportunity to write the new series’ theme song. It was too good to pass up, even if writing a song to appease the folks at Cartoon Network was something of a headache.

“We’ve never had to work at a corporate level, and I ended up having to talk to so many departments at Cartoon Network in the course of a year,” says McKenna. The result is their two-minute earworm “Who’s Got the Power?” which McKenna hopes will help young girls find their music.

They’re Using Their Newfound Popularity to Bring Their Message to a Larger Audience

“A lot of feminist punk bands don’t make it very far,” says McKenna. “A really cool thing would be to infiltrate the corporate world. We write songs that have an underlying feminist agenda, but being willing to do, say, a Spotify session is a radical move, because a lot of bands shun that as something they’re above.”

Sometimes that might mean working with Cartoon Network to craft a suitable cartoon theme song, but Tacocat remains confident of their message, their personality and their positive, inclusive spin on feminism.

They’re Touring This Spring

As soon as they’re finished with their record release party in Seattle on March 31, Tacocat will be hitting the road on a series of tour dates that will take them throughout the US and then to 19 cities throughout Europe, before finally returning home after an appearance at Sasquatch Music Festival on May 27.