The Strokes’ widespread success has brought the music
industry spotlight back on NYC. Daily Arts profiles seven of the
city’s most promising bands.
Interpol
A vicious, inspired redux of so many early-’80s punk bands,
Interpol sounds like Joy Division on a steady diet of O.K.
Computer. A smart, stylish guitar miasma, the band’s debut
album, Turn on the Bright Lights, channels a discontent so
subtle it’s almost lost amid the six-string thrust. Interpol make
paranoia and aggression sound sexy.
Liars
Liars sounds like that feeling you get when you fall and scrape
your palms on the pavement. A stinging swab of gory disco beats and
obtuse vocals help Liars vie with Interpol for “Best current NYC
band not named the Strokes.” Extra points for song titles like “The
Towers Were Hollow and Filled With Candy So We Knocked Them
Over.”
The Rapture
The shameless, spastic dance to the Strokes’ cross-armed cool,
the Rapture rock acid-punk guitars and shout-out vocals over showy
beats. Not quite Gloria Gaynor, but not quite not Gloria Gaynor,
either. And that’s a good thing.
TV on the Radio
These new kids on the block threaten to overrun the whole damn
street. Their first EP, Young Liars, was a soulful, arty
trip that followed spooky harmonies and gutsy, layered guitars into
moonlit alleys.
Calla
NY art-punk slowed to a weeping crawl. Using insidious arpeggios
and angry whispers, Calla gets inside your head, tucks you in and
steals your wallet. Turn off the bright lights.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Lead singer Karen O brings the headlines with her fishnet
fashions, but it’s her band’s combination of surf and punk that
keeps the critics fawning and the heads nodding. Their live show, a
sloppy, frenetic attack of alcohol and charisma, is among the
fiercest the city offers.
The Walkmen
Picture Stephen Malkmus penning Brit-pop songs for Volkswagen
commercials on Quaaludes and you’ve got one of NY’s most surprising
new bands in the wake of the Strokes.
The Mooney Suzuki
These over-the-top, black leather-clad garage rawkers backed up
Jack Black in “School of Rock” and are recording their major label
jump with The Matrix.
– Compiled by Andrew M. Gaerig