Tokyo Police Club, Ra Ra Riot

Tokyo Police Club signal they’re ready for some of this “booze” they’ve heard about.

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• Tokyo Police Club
• The Strokes
• South by Southwest Festival
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• Music Festivals

The latest tousle-headed guitar band to be the toast of SXSW and the blogosphere before they're old enough to shave, Tokyo Police Club are weathering a stiff backlash breeze from hipsters who weren't nuts about the Strokes the first time around, or in any case are soooo over them now. Really, it's only the opening stairstep riff of "Cheer It On," which opens 2006 EP A Lesson In Crime. Okay, and the rest of the song. And the general Julian-ness of bassist/singer David Monks's voice. But whatevs. There's some Editors and Art Brut in their bouncy, tremolo-shaded songs as well, and at 16 minutes, Lesson is brief enough to let listeners draw their own parallels, and just long enough to keep them guessing. Just hope they've written enough new material to fill up a 45-minute set; lively new single "Your English Is Good," released earlier this month, suggests they have. Syracuse, New York, sextet Ra Ra Riot, soldiering on in the wake of drummer John Pike's suspected drowning death last month, opens.