We've gotten to know British singer-songwriter Holly Golightly through the garage rock group Thee Headcoatees as well as via collaborations with the White Strips and the Greenhornes and, of course, her own solo albums.

Now Golightly has a new project -- a "group" called the Brokeoffs, which consists only of her and her boyfriend, Lawyer Dave and recently brought out its first U.S. album, "Dirt Don't Hurt."

"Dave's played stand-up bass in the touring lineups of my band, so we've been playing together a long time," says Golightly, 42. "We spent so long on tour, traveling in the van and talking about how good it would be to do this or do that. It was kind of a natural thing, really.

"Of course, when it came to sitting down and doing it, we hadn't really thought about [i]how[/i] we would do it," she adds with a laugh. "So we had to puzzle that out, but I think it worked out in the end."

The Brokeoffs name, meanwhile, came courtesy of Lawyer Dave's grandmother.

"It was something she used to say," explains Golightly (ne Smith), who lives with Lawyer Dave in Georgia. "She used to get some news reader's name confused (NBC's Tom Brokaw). She used to say 'I really like that Tom Brokeoff. That was something Dave really, really liked, so we adopted it for our name."



Holly Golightly & the Brokeoffs perform Thursday (Nov. 13) at the Magic Stick, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 in advance, $12 day of show. Call (313) 833-9700 or visit www.majesticdetroit.com.