The Hidden Chord: The Captain and His Entourage

Remember Disney's "interactive" epic Tron? Sure, it was probably created to capitalize on the burgeoning gaming boom of the early Eighties. But it's now serving as a model for both the Atari-starved and any musician wishing to re-create the bygone charm of bleeps and bloops. It's easy to imagine Minneapolis quartet the Hidden Chord becoming dimensionally displaced like the guy in that movie, while still pushing their fierce Mortal guitar Kombat further into a synthesized sphere. In this spirit, the group coined the genre "broken-robot rock," which describes the music on their new EP The Captain and his Entourage.

Despite their record's addling concept--involving the Captain's trip through the East Coast and disheartening experiences with vanity and consumerism--the Hidden Chord practices straightforward, ground-stomping rock. The interplay between guitarist/vocalist Knol Tate's post-Jagger swagger and bandmate Brian Severns's boyish scowl is highly entertaining, as is the rapture of plucked guitars and humming keyboards. Opener "A Fictional Literature Dealing With the Problems of Dreams," finds Severns bowing his instrument with a drumstick and pogoing with Tate on matters of redemption. With equal parts energy and art-school invention, the Hidden Chord have a knack for thinking outside the Xbox.