Dub Noir

After years of playing together in hardcore bands, vocalist/guitarist Joe Howell and guitarist Casey Immel-Brown formed Dub Noir as an outlet for their love of late '70s and '80s Britpop. Shades of The Cure color "Grim Expectations," with its disaffected lyric "And they wanted us all to feign a smile / Where did we go wrong?" contrasting with jangling guitars and Marcus Matthews's keyboard accents; Dub Noir channels The Smiths with the plaintive introspection of "All Night Parties." Throughout, Howell and Immel-Brown's interwoven guitar lines recall the classic dual-axe chemistry of two of the band's other favorites, Television and The Byrds.