Post-Punk

MOD SQUAD: From left, Interpol's Sam Fogarino, Paul Banks, Carlos D., and Daniel Kessler.   (Photo: Michael Edwards)

Interpol

Sounds Like: An updated version of Joy Division with lyrics plucked from the journal of an emotionally troubled social misfit.
Signature Lyrics: "I'm sick of spending these lonely nights / Training myself not to care," from "NYC."
College Band: Four years ago, songwriter-guitarist Daniel Kessler spotted a "very distinguished-looking man," bassist Carlos D., at NYU. They struck up a conversation, and Interpol was born.
Anxiety Of Influence: Singer Paul Banks's deep, insistent voice is a flawless interpretation of Joy Division's Ian Curtis. But Kessler shrugs off such comparisons: "It was a surprise when people started mentioning eighties influences," he says. Um, right . . .
Make Or Break? Snapped up by Matador, Interpol, whose first album is called Turn On the Bright Lights, is one of the most successful bands to come out of the wave of post-Strokes hype -- though it's alternately been pegged as redeeming the New York scene or wrecking it (a Times critic recently dismissed the dark-suited boys as "the beginning of the end"). Interpol insists it's earned its keep: "Back when we started, it was almost original to be a rock band from New York," says Kessler. "To get shows, you had to prove yourself. It made us pay our dues and figure out our identity."

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NEW ROMANTICS: Calla -- from left, Wayne Magruder, Auereilo Valle, and Sean Donovan.   (Photo: Courtesy of Arena Rock Recordings)

Calla

Sounds Like: Post–My Bloody Valentine makeout music influenced by Neil Young and Nick Cave.
Signature Lyrics: "Something's gotten hold of my tongue / See what you've done? / I would give anything / Just to see it happen to you," from "Strangler."
Right Place, Wrong Sound: In 1995, Aurelio Valle and two friends from Dallas, Wayne Magruder and Sean Donovan, moved to New York with high hopes: "We thought the kind of dark music we were playing then would be accepted here," Valle says. "But everyone was playing garage." So the three shifted gears and formed Calla. The band's debut took cues from Philip Glass and the Jesus and Mary Chain, but Calla has since abandoned its inaccessible sound and, with its third album, Televise, is trying to move away from being "something you'd listen to at 3 a.m."

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Prosaics

Sounds Like: Full of angst, the Prosaics nod to post-punk acts like Mission of Burma.
Signature Lyrics: "Not knowing why / But knowing what for," from "Silhouette."
Day Jobs Be Gone! After an October tour with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Liars, guitarist-vocalist Andy Comer (who's getting a Ph.D. in English at CUNY) and bassist Joshua Zucker (who works for a video artist) hope to join drummer Bill Kuehn as full-time musicians. Look for their first single, "Failure," next year.
Thinking Man's Punk: "The post-punk of the early eighties made us realize that punk could be really emotional, intense, and intelligent, yet subtle and totally honest," say the trio via e-mail.

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Electro

Mommy and Daddy

Sounds Like: Calling themselves the "Sonny and Cher of electro-punk," they favor fuzzy bass, drum machines, and the sung-shouted vocal stylings of the B-52s.
Signature Lyrics: " 'Paparazzi vipers! / Why can't I live a normal life?' / She says from behind sunglasses / Next year she'll be a Stepford wife," from the anti-Chloë Sevigny rant "Permed Past Her Prime."
Marital Dis-Cord: Given the brainy bitchiness of their lyrics, it's easy to imagine Edmond Hallas and Vivian Sarratt bonding over a mutual hatred of logic class at George Mason University, getting married, moving to Avenue C, and working in book publishing (which is exactly what happened). But musically, Sarratt, a half-Vietnamese flutist, and Hallas, a "white as laundry" punk guitarist, didn't click right away. Among their duds: "slower than Black Sabbath" doom metal.
Mom-and-Pop Act: Their current incarnation (named, rather lamely, after what they call themselves when talking to their cat) is much more promising. An album from the U.K.'s Big Cat Records (Pavement, Luscious Jackson) is due out in January.
Jack and Meg, Part 2: "I don't listen to the White Stripes," insists Sarratt. And Hallas has a different relationship in mind: "I think we're more Captain & Tennille."

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W.I.T. (Whatever It Takes)

Sounds Like: Synthed-up and punked-out eighties dance music-or, as the band describes it, "huggable pop electro."
Signature Lyrics: ""Ooh, I like it / Tell me that you like it / My beeper goes off when you're around / Ooh, I like it / Tell me that you like it / Let me see the way you move a woman around," from "Ooh, I Like It."
Retro Chic: elissa Burns and Christine Doza, two glossy-lipped sexpots in their early twenties (with a look that falls somewhere between Blondie and Heart), caught the eye of Larry Tee, electroclash impresario, and have been working toward "intergalactic domination" ever since.
Taking It Even Further: W.I.T. (which, in case you were worried about it, can be pronounced either Wit or W-I-T) is gearing up for its October debut album, Whatever It Takes, which includes a sugary cover of the Cars' "Just What I Needed." In the meantime, you can usually spot Burns and Doza grooving (onstage or off) at Luxx.