Women

Sun., Oct. 10, 9 p.m., $10, with DD/MM/YYYY, Johnny Brenda's, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 877-435-9849, johnnybrendas.com.

by K. Ross Hoffman

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Published: Oct 6, 2010

[ rock/pop ]

There's a distinct whiff of irony about this Calgary band's name (the group consists of four Y-chromosomes who make some awfully male-associated sounds) but there's nary a trace of humor, or even lightness, in what they do. Their new album is Public Strain (Jagjaguwar), whose title suggests the kind of grave, sober-minded dedication they bring to their business of high guitar art, and its contents form a thoughtful, not unbeautiful survey of burnished architectural drones, ruggedly prismatic buzzsaw interplay and drab, metronomic kraut-punk, emanating from the blazed-out shells of would-be pop songs. There are pleasures to be gleaned here — in artfully deliberate layers of textural distress, in stray, resplendent shards of tunefulness — it might just take a bit of work to get there. But hey: That never hurt anybody.

Sun., Oct. 10, 9 p.m., $10, with DD/MM/YYYY, Johnny Brenda's, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 877-435-9849, johnnybrendas.com.

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