Memo to Cleo

Kay Hanley's '90s rock band reunites, briefly, in the here and now

Letters to Cleo (from left, Kay Hanley, Stacy Jones, Joe Klompus, Greg McKenna, and Michael Eisenstein) is playing shows in LA, Boston, and New York. (Justine ungaro)

When Letters to Cleo takes the stage at the Paradise Monday night for the first of two sold-out shows, fans of the beloved Boston rock quintet might want to offer silent thanks to whoever planned 2007's blockbuster Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus tour.

Last December, Cleo frontwoman Kay Hanley and drummer Stacy Jones's performance with the tween queen at the DCU Center in Worcester - as backing vocalist and drummer/musical director, respectively - happened to coincide with a series of benefit concerts taking place in Cambridge for beloved T.T. the Bear's Place bartender Jeanne Connolly, an early and vocal Cleo cheerleader.

Hanley and Jones raced over to the club after the Cyrus gig. Also in the house to show support were former Cleo guitarists Greg McKenna and Michael Eisenstein, Hanley's husband.

It had been seven years since Letters to Cleo - which broke out of the regional scene and onto the national alt-rock stage with the tongue-twisting 1994 hit "Here and Now" - had played its final show. (Interestingly enough, it was another benefit, this one for the late Boston music booster Mikey Dee.)

"It was death by a thousand cuts, I think, starting with me having a baby," Hanley says of the breakup. "Way, way back in the olden days, Greg and I always said to each other when it's not fun we just don't do it anymore. And it had started to become profoundly unfun."

Although Eisenstein, Jones, and McKenna (who remained in the Boston area with his band, Murder Capital of the World) had shown enthusiasm about the prospect of a reunion, "it seemed like a long shot," says Eisenstein. Each member had taken on commitments musical and otherwise, including Eisenstein's and Jones's production and performance work with bands such as Our Lady Peace and American Hi-Fi. And Hanley, who had recorded several solo albums and done voice-over work in Los Angeles, was resistant in general.

That night at TT's, Hanley changed her tune. The former bandmates decided on the spot to have an unrehearsed Cleo reunion, with buddy Joe Klompus - who had played bass with Hanley in her post-Cleo ventures - pinch-hitting for Scott Riebling. "It really was as spontaneous as that. And then when we did it I was like, 'I'm an [expletive], of course we should play shows! Why not?' " says Hanley, 40, on the phone from the LA home she and Eisenstein have lived in with their two kids, Zoe, 9, and Henry, 5, for the past five years.

The Paradise shows are part of a brief four-gig reunion stint, including a recent performance at the Roxy in LA and an upcoming show at the Bowery Ballroom in New York. (Riebling, who hung up his bass in favor of producing, is also sitting those out, but there's no drama, Hanley says: "I just don't think he was feeling it.") The group is also self-releasing "When Did We Do That?" a collection of demos, unreleased tracks, and soundtrack cuts from films like "The Craft" and "10 Things I Hate About You." (The disc includes "Come On," a long-sought-after tune from the latter film that didn't make the soundtrack).

The album, like its four predecessors, showcases what made Letters to Cleo so popular during the grunge era: Muscular guitar rock laced with tart melodies and Hanley's powerful yet girlish voice.

"What I always liked about the band was just that they oozed a real rock commitment and attitude," says Ralph Sall, a film music supervisor who hired the band to work on the "10 Things" soundtrack, among others. "A cute girl fronting a melodic pop rock band, what's not to like?"

That 1999 teen comedy, in which the group also appeared playing covers of Cheap Trick and Nick Lowe, was pivotal in keeping the Letters to Cleo flame alive.

"I think we got a lot more popular after we broke up from the success of that movie," says Eisenstein, who started a Letters to Cleo MySpace page a few years back for new listeners trying to track them down. "Without any active promotion by me, it's over 20,000 fans."

Hanley believes there's been a resurgence of interest in music from the '90s. Indeed, many in the Roxy crowd were folks who had never seen the band live. "I think kids look to music of that era as being like the dawn of indie music," she says.

Sall, who has worked on films ranging from "Speed" to "Hamlet 2," agrees. "To me, the breakthrough of that Nirvana moment wasn't so much a validation of how timeless that particular music was but more a validation of making music without a lot of the packaging and pomp and stuff."

Hanley, who has hardly been a stranger to Boston since her Left Coast move, returning annually for Hot Stove Cool Music shows, says the band doesn't anticipate a full-fledged return. Simply put, they're all too busy, which, she notes with characteristically charming bluntness, is a blessing. "I think if I wasn't so busy it would be depressing to do this. Everybody has gainful employment elsewhere, so we really can take this on as just a really fun thing to do."

Sarah Rodman can be reached at srodman@globe.com.