White Denim

Sun., Oct. 14, 8 p.m., 21+, $8, with Middle Distance Runner, the Gay Blades and Syme, the Khyber, 56 S. Second St., 215-238-5888, thekhyber.com.

by Maria Tessa Sciarrino

rock/pop

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Just to answer the weird, lingering question in your mind: This Austin-based band does share a name with the Allentown-based punk label who brought you Pissed Jeans and others — I think it's kind of great that they share tangentially similar sonic aesthetics, too. But whatever. References to the Minutemen surround this band, which I guess is a fair, if lazy, comparison — the short songs and similar punk/funk approach to the bass guitar evoke it instantly — but I hear more of the Big Boys (another great Austin band from the same era as the Minutemen) in the rowdy, upbeat songs composing the self-released Let's Talk About It EP. Keyboards, sitars, transient random bursts of noise are splayed out over swaggering, confident polyrhythmic drumming — White Denim dish out seriously fun jams that burst at the seams, but there's enough flourishes here to remind the listener that the band is firmly rooted in this decade.

Sun., Oct. 14, 8 p.m., 21+, $8, with Middle Distance Runner, the Gay Blades and Syme, the Khyber, 56 S. Second St., 215-238-5888, thekhyber.com.