Born Ruffians preview

Born Ruffians
Empty Bottle, Chicago
Wednesday, April 2, 2008

With Columbia-educated New Yorkers Vampire Weekend riding high on a deafening wave of hype and “Saturday Night Live”-scale appearances, Toronto-based trio Born Ruffians probably wish they beat the Afro-centric Ivy Leaguers to the punch.

The band’s first full-length, Red, Yellow And Blue (Warp), employs a similar hypnotic, bouncy vibe that made darlings out of those other Big Apple-dwellers The Strokes. Sparse arrangements of surf guitar, bass, and drums give frontman Luke Lalonde room to spastically yelp his way through the record. Keenly able to mimic a gaggle of shrieking teenage girls confronted with Justin Timberlake (“Foxes Mate For Life”) or curling up around a chunky, monosyllabic stance, a la Isaac Brock (“Hedonistic Me”), Lalonde colors the album’s 11 tracks with a sweeping paint brush.

“I Need A Life” stands out as the most desirable track of the bunch. With its fist-pumping call-and-response chorus of “but we go out at night,” the song appropriately works best blaring through speakers of a car — especially if said car is en route to a Friday night destination with more passengers than seatbelts can accommodate. If only the kids in American Graffiti had this ditty to drag race to.

Cadence Weapon and Poison Arrows open.

— Janine Schaults

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly