Tokyo Police Club

Sometimes it seems as if the rise of the mp3 and the tastemaking music blog is accelerating the cycle from underground to buzzing to blowing up to busted at a dangerous clip. When we look back at the past two or three years, three or four years from now, will we remember bands like Tokyo Police Club? Their 2006 debut EP, A Lesson in Crime, is certainly rife with adrenaline, its seven tracks clocking in under 16 minutes. The Canadian quartet never lets an idea go stale, out-stroking the Strokes with their jagged, raucous guitar rock, and nearly every track feels like a single. "Shoulders & Arms" stands head and shoulders above the others, though, sounding like the best Bloc Party song Bloc Party never made, and rushing at you headlong with knives out. And that's the beauty of pop: All it takes is that momentary sensation overload to make a great song—and maybe that's enough. It doesn't have to last. With the Virgins.
Tue., Oct. 9, 8 p.m., 2007