There are certain sonic signatures within Chicago and Brooklyn’s prevailing indie scenes that collide oh so colorfully in These Are Powers, a trio that’s at once rhythmically tight and freakishly blurry. The band’s hypnotic scrawls and sprawl were enough to lasso Austin’s Dead Oceans — kid-sister label of major indies Secretly Canadian and Jagjaguwar — into imminently re-releasing last year’s Terrific Seasons and follow-up EP Taro Tarot. The former was a confident enough debut album, but it’s the latter that finds These Are Powers truly showing off its own weirdness. Conjured with much smoke and mystery by singer-guitarist Anna Barie, singer-bassist Pat Noecker and drummer Bill Salas, the EP’s droning, foreboding deconstruction of post-punk contains something of the Slits, though fans of early Chromatics and Gang Gang Dance should also start getting excited. A new album slated for early next year will be These Are Powers’ true test, so until then, check out the live show and decide for yourself.
This article appears in Sep 18-24, 2008.