While they are by no means the first band to use the Internet as a stepping-stone to success, the members of Voxtrot have certainly perfected the art. The indie foursome from Austin, Texas -- who have garnered praise from SPIN.com and Pitchfork, among others -- maintain a MySpace page, and their frontman, Ramesh Srivastava, regularly updates his blog, cleverly titled "The Voxtrot Kid."
Nevertheless, Voxtrot deserves all the HTML praise they've received. The critics surely helped, but it was word of mouth and fantastic live performances that truly launched the group into the spotlight. Their first EP, last year's Raised by Wolves, is short -- only five songs -- but full of classically high-strung indie dance-pop reminiscent of late 80s staples The Cure and Joy Division.
Staccato guitars and frenzied drums are united by Srivastava's distinctively unruffled voice. It never roams far from the middle ranges but nevertheless follows right along with the EP's ups and downs.
Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives, their newest EP (yes, they have yet to release a full-length album) is something of a different beast. With its five tracks, Srivastava et al. have apparently abandoned their foot-tapping catchiness for more guitar-filled pastures. Mothers resonates with jagged intensity.
On "Rise Up in the Dirt," for example, dark-sounding, semi-grumbling melodies fill the spaces between characteristically catchy choruses, with Srivastava's voice noticeably more emo (à la Ben Gibbard). While Mothers is perhaps less ready-made for indie dance parties than its predecessor, Voxtrot nevertheless has given us music that simultaneously evokes classic sounds and results from unpretentious originality -- an admirable feat.
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