Les Savy Fav

A hammy band big into indie-rock slop, Les Savy Fav hit its prime in the late-’90s, when bands and audiences were content to stand around looking bored at shows. Leader Tim Harrington and his man-kissing, mattress-surfing antics changed all that—not to give short shrift to the rest of the group, which dishes out devilishly catchy post-punk that laid the groundwork for thousands to follow. Les Savy Fav takes notoriously long hiatuses between records, but after the six-year gap between Go Forth and 2007’s Let’s Stay Friends, it turned out a new album relatively quickly with 2010’s Root For Ruin. Don’t be fooled by jarringly straightforward love songs like “Let’s Get Out Of Here”: The band still balances them out with archetypal ragers, artful jams, and the barely controlled guitar squalls of creepy/uplifting closer “Clear Spirits,” which ranks among the band’s best ever.

Updated 08/23/2011