Jena Malone, the actress known mostly as "that chick from Donnie Darko" and other similarly unremarkable performances, has an indie rock band. They're called Of Wild Animals. Or Dancing Circus Hamsters. Or Jena Malone and Her Bloodstains.

They're unsigned but, like most unsigned bands, have a Web site, a MySpace page (1,266 friends), a YouTube account, at least five songs, four music videos — art school quality featuring Malone singing while, among other things, petting a cat [above] and mimicking finger puppets [below] — and four New York gigs, including one with the MisShapes:

Mar 6 2007 10:30PM Mercury Lounge, New York
Mar 10 2007 12:00AM MisShapes party, New York
Mar 10 2007 9:00PM Union Hall, Brooklyn, New York
Mar 13 2007 8:00PM Joes Pub, New York
Apr 14 2007 9:00PM The Echo, Los Angeles, California

Malone's voice conjures up equal parts of the female indie rock lexicon (PJ Harvey and Neko Case come to mind); she describes her sound as "the inside of my brain."

Still, Malone has a better chance at crossover success — or, at the very least, mild critical success — than, say, Juliette Lewis. That is, of course, not saying much.

Another Malone video: