From The Dorks' Soundtrack: Wolf Parade

Band: Wolf Parade

Song: California Dreamer

Album: At Mount Zoomer

Label: Sub Pop

So, usually I try to talk about a band that I have been digging on lately. And while this week that could have been several different bands I thought that I would go with the one that I drove an hour and 40 minutes to see on Friday night. I have been a big fan of this band since September of 2005, when I found them on Spin.com's Artist of the Day column (starting to notice a trend of how I found a lot of music from 2004 until 2006?). They are bombastically brilliant and intelligently infectious. Once you listen to their 2005 release "Apologies to the Queen Mary" you'll find yourself unconsciously humming "You Are a Runner and I Am My Father's Son" and "Modern World" incessantly. Their sophomore effort shows a lot of maturation has occurred in the band and I give them an insane amount of credit for it.

These guys just flat out know how to play too. When they took the stage my first thought was: "Is the bassist barefoot?" followed by "Is the back up keyboardist barefoot?" and then finally ... "Wow, these guys burn a whole lot of calories onstage." Just kinetic from the opening salvo to the final note, these guys held me rapt with glee. I was surprised rather frequently that the singer/guitarist Dan Boeckner didn't just fly apart at the seams. I think it was an impossible love of the music he was sharing with us that kept him from just exploding from the sheer amount of kinetic energy he was creating. And Spencer Krug was a master of the keys all night long but I could help but think that he has to have a chiropractor on retainer as he spent the whole concert hunched over his keyboard crafting incredible sound-scapes and singing in his own unique voice.

I think that trying to peg this group down to a particular sound would be folly if not nigh on impossible. But it is clear that they are inspired by groups like The Pixies, Built to Spill, and at times Guided by Voices. But try not to think of where their inspiration comes from and just realize that they are an inspirational force all their own. Watching them I couldn't help but wish that I could find a band that needed a lead singer and just find a stage on which to hone our craft. These guys from Montreal know how to rock, and if you listen closely enough they might just show you how to rock as well.