NOISE

You haven't played a show in the U.S. since 1999. Any particular reason?

I honestly don't know why, because we have been playing quite a lot in Europe. But for one reason or another it has been a few years. I tend to not come over very often, particularly in recent years since the American government has not made foreigners very welcome.

Any significance to kicking off your U.S. return in Las Vegas?

We've got a bit of a band birthday on February 16—our 25th—which does deserve a bit of a marker. I wanted to do it somewhere outrageous, and Vegas is pretty outrageous. It's not quite like the rest of the planet. And it's a fantastic place to spend one's birthday, particularly if one's coming straight from an English winter.

The Sisters have had a machine (named Doktor Avalanche) playing drums—and sometimes bass—since their inception. How much has the Doktor changed with technology over the years?

It's like an old Dodge, really, which we keep putting a bigger engine in. You could probably say there's no original parts left, but it's still designed to do the same job. We just hope it does it better. We just hate drummers. There are only a few good ones on the planet. If we had John Bonham or [Siouxsie and the Banshees'] Budgie or the guy that used to play with the Comsat Angels [Mik Glaisher], then I'd quite like to be playing with a drummer. But we've gotten used to the Doktor, and he calls the shots, so we don't have much choice anymore.

Lust and Tiger! Tiger! are both from Atlanta, touring together and appearing this week at the Double Down. Yet looking at each band's most recent CD cover, they could not appear more different. The Lust cover suggests a low-budget, campy affair, while Tiger! Tiger!'s arty black-and-white photography suggests something more sophisticated and complex.

Although Lust's music perfectly complements the artwork (it's trashy, low-fi punk rock with sleazy lyrics), Tiger! Tiger! aren't quite as subdued as their cover suggests, and their weird, organ-drenched rock doesn't sound like something inappropriate to pair with Lust. They'll probably both be right at home at the Double Down, although the two CDs did have one other thing in common: They both kind of sucked.

Pop-punk band Yellowcard grabs headlines by employing a fiddle player, but they're hardly the first band to deviate from rock's tried-and-true lineup of guitars, keyboards and drums. Ten good songs featuring unusual instrumentation:

• Cursive—"The Recluse" (cello)

• Mekons—"King Arthur" (accordion)

• The Roots—"Respond/React" (harp)

• Jethro Tull—"Cold Wind to Valhalla" (flute)

• The Rapture—"House of Jealous Lovers" (cowbell)

• Air—"Alpha Beta Gaga" (theremin)

• Broken Social Scene—"Pacific Trim" (trombone)

• Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band— "Jungleland" (saxophone)

• Laaraji (Brian Eno)—"The Dance #2" (zither)

• Radiohead —"Life in a Glass House" (trumpet)

Oliver Future


Bear Chronicles V.2 (3 stars)

Like fellow Austin natives Spoon, Oliver Future sounds far too British to actually hail from the Lone Star State. The band, publicly endorsed by Sex Pistol Steve Jones, shows off a quirky energy and an advanced sense of melody on this five-song EP that should translate well to a live setting.

Armor for Sleep


What to Do When You are Dead (3 stars)

Emo concept album! The sophomore release from New Jersey's Armor for Sleep is a song cycle told from the perspective of a ghost, following him from death ("Car Underwater") to haunting his loved ones ("Basement Ghost Singing") to finally ascending to the afterlife ("The End of a Fraud"). Apparently, being dead is a lot like being a lovelorn teenager, since What to Do sounds like most other angst-ridden emo records if you aren't reading the lyrics carefully. But AFS do the genre well, and the added storytelling element sets this album apart from its often indistinguishable peers.

Bayside


Bayside (2 stars)

The Long Island outfit's emo sound doesn't stand out in any particular way, but it's hard not to pull for these guys after an October van accident claimed the life of their drummer and sidelined their bassist with broken vertebrae. A retooled quartet returned to the road last month, so expect the show to be inspirational if nothing else.