D-I-Y rocker Amy Cooper is a California girl who cut her teeth musically while studying photography in New York City. Inspired by Greenwich Village underground musicians Arto Lindsay and Blonde Redhead, Cooper was soon sharing stages with comparable performers like Juliana Hatfield, Martha Wainright and Tracy Bonham. Returning to the Bay area in 2005, she released her first album, Water/Fire, and a few years later (after trading San Francisco for L.A.) her follow up EP, Mirrors, was released on Retone/Leftwing Records (May 2007). Cooper’s brand of “hard pop” gets her compared to Liz Phair and Patty Smith a lot, and her guitar skills have some critics mentioning Keith Richards, too. Cooper plays Mohwak Place on Monday (July 2) at 9pm.