Don’t be deceived by the winking name: Kera & the Lesbians play their salamagundi blues like they’re gonna put a whuppin’ on ya. Their music – they call it “bipolar folk,” which is at least half right – has been a work in progress ever since San Diego-bred Kera Armendariz released the “Green Apples” 7-inch two-plus years ago. On “Gypsy Punk,” the first song the quintet has revealed from a forthcoming EP, Armendariz wails with notable élan, chewing up the lyrical scenery as her bandmates shift rhythms, instrumentation and, possibly, musical epochs. As they displayed Monday night in an array of new songs, there’s something throwback about Kera & the Lesbians, as if they’ve listened to the right scratchy records but none so often that they’d become an obsession. Mark it down; their EP, titled “Year 23,” will be out Jan. 28.