The Austerity Program

Thu., Feb. 21, 7:30 p.m., $10, with Genghis Tron, Steve Moore and Drums Like Machine Guns, First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St., 866-468-7619, r5productions.com.

by Atom Goren

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Published: Feb 19, 2008

rock/pop

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The Austerity Program are my kind of nerds. An album and a half of jarring, noisy but catchy and angry anthems by the two-human, one-drum-machine ensemble was enough to convince me that Black Madonna (Hydra Head Records) was one of the best albums released in 2007. However, aside from that praise, they are my kind of nerds. One of the humans works for the Service Employees International Union and the other is working on his Ph.D. (each either kind or nerdy, but still not the reason that they're my kind of nerds). The Austerity Program are my kind of nerds because the full statistical analysis of the components of their songs (lyrically and the parts of the songs, as well as the drum machine phrases) that graces the insert for Black Madonna is unbelievable, as is the part of one song where singer Justin Foley yells, "This is my favorite part!" just before my favorite part of the record.

Thu., Feb. 21, 7:30 p.m., $10, with Genghis Tron, Steve Moore and Drums Like Machine Guns, First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St., 866-468-7619, r5productions.com.

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