Office/Capitol Years @ Mercury Lounge

It's been a while since an indie band from Chi-town has caused a bit of buzzing around these music parts. The five-member crew of Office had the kids dancing well past midnight at Mercury Lounge Saturday night during Crackers United Friction Party (I have to say that or they'll be mad at me). Of course, Office is not to be confused with The Office, Office Space, OfficeMax or OfficeDepot. It's just another band name that's not very Google friendly.

In a landscape where new wave, dance rock bands seem to be spouting up like Starbucks franchises, I'm glad to report that Office have the goods, without the usual trappings of the genre. They leave those 80s fashions to behind in favor of normal stage attire and no posturing attitude can be found. What they do have are a bunch of precise, quick rock songs that leave you wanting more.

Song like If You Don't Know By Now, Q&A, The Ritz, Not Her Style, Had a Visit, Company Calls and the crowd pleaser Wound Up recall the heyday of The Cars with their synth drenched, rocking melodies and forceful vocals from Scott Masson and Tom Smith. What they also bring to the table is a little bit of musical sex appeal. Even if you didn't see them live, on their professional debut album, A Night at the Ritz, you can sense the cool and confidence of their sound, making it that much more appealing. I especially like the foot stomping qualities of Q&A. Add a little bit of that cowbell action and you got a song you can hang your hat on.

Live, the band, who's been kicking out the beats since 2000, make it look easy. I think after seven years they know what they are doing. They played 14 songs with an unplanned encore in a little under an hour.  I was completely impressed about how they wasted no time in getting crowd worked into a frenzy. It was easy, their music is a body moving experience.

While I retreated to the bar during The Teeth's set (I've seen before, they rule), I made sure to get there in time to see The Capitol Years, another quality indie act out of Philly. They play simple, straight-up indie rock with a little ramshackleness you'd find in early Wilco recordings. I liked how they played loosely, and aloud themselves to jam out for 5-10 minutes, but they didn't seem like they were "jamming." They just would find a hook or groove and just go with it. Jam bands usually fall into that psychedelic realm, but these cats are far from it. They are more along the lines of My Morning Jacket without the southern rock qualities.

Comments

[karen]

The capitol years were the winners!

[that dude jeff]

actually snobbery,

the jamming that the capitol years were up to for that loooooong break was because the lead vocalist/rhythm guitarist broke a string, went offstage and tried to remedy while the other 4 kept tempo and beat changes all together. very impressive from where we stood (about 5 feet to your right).