The Jim Jims scrape The Bottom Of The City

String sections, Burt Bacharach influences, and quiet folk tunes? Some nights you might think your parents were indie-rock bands' target demographic. But not when The Jim Jims take the stage, which they'll do tonight at the Hi-Dive (with openers Kissing Party and Vitamins) for the release of their new seven-song disc, Bottom Of The City. The Denver five-piece picks up cues from bands as varied yet primal as The Sonics, Interpol, and The Birthday Party. The band's music rocks more than the average post-punk clatter, thanks to some garage-loving overtones and a bit of hedonism. In other words, the group is anything but preened and posed.

“I don’t know if being confrontational is a goal, but a lot of the bands I look up to do that,” explains The Jim Jims' guitarist-keyboardist Chris Fowke. “I don’t necessarily want to do it in a macho way, but I think being confrontational is a great way to get people to react. All the great bands, I think, had a confrontational element. Not necessarily by spitting into the crowd."

Bottom Of The City isn’t going to impress your folks. On the song "Horny," singer-guitarist Adam Martin salivates over a night of “super sex” with a drunk woman; later, "Strobe Light" hints at feats of backstage debauchery that would make Led Zeppelin blush a little. But just when you're ready to succumb to the disc's decadent darkness, a ray of hope breaches the gloom in the pointedly life-affirming “Anti-Suicide.”

“I don’t think it’s ground breaking,” Fowke says of his band's music. “I think there’s just been such a lull that it’s refreshing to have someone who’s not afraid to scare you a little bit.”