This looks quite interesting....
From a New York Times article accessed through the Asobi
website. The 80's are still a prime source of inspiration for New York rockers, but many of the most recent groups focus on a different side of the decade than their immediate predecessors. Instead of the confrontational, avant-garde rock of Gang of Four and the Fall, they favor the melancholy of the Cure and the opacity of Peter Gabriel.
Two groups with female singers, On!Air!Library! and Asobi Seksu, draw heavily from the British "dream pop" of groups like Lush and the Cocteau Twins, with glumly swaying rhythms, big storm clouds of guitar and spookily angelic voices. On!Air!Library!, featuring two sweet-voiced identical twin sisters, Alley and Claudia Deheza, will release its self-titled debut album on April 6 on the Arena Rock label. Its best track is "Bread," an epic round that hints at weird inner obsessions: "The reason why you don't rest/ You haven't built it." The Deheza sisters sing it in close, grandiose, Irish-tinged harmony.
Asobi Seksu takes the late-80's British connection even further on its debut album ("Asobi Seksu," released on Friendly Fire), with songs like "Let Them Wait" and "Sooner" that borrow the grimly cinematic psychedelia of My Bloody Valentine.
These newer bands owe a clear debt to their most recent predecessors. Mr. Sitek, who plays guitar and programs most of the electronic effects in TV on the Radio, has produced albums for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Liars. And the the Strokes' Julian Casablancas and the Yeahs' Karen O are no strangers to the slow-building rock ballad, though they seem more in their element when they are acting out, rousing the crowds.
Bands like the Strokes, Oneida and the Rapture were self-consciously re-establishing New York rock as gritty, noisy party music. But TV on the Radio and their ilk arrive at a time when a rock renaissance has already been firmly established in New York. They don't need to shout to let out their dark emotions, and that's something to feel good about.
