Miami-based Awesome New Republic sounds like vice. Slick surfaces and pastel-colored melodies hide a grisly, visceral nastiness that makes you want to sweat. More succinctly, they’re Don-Johnson hot, a welcome breeze from the south in this early winter.
It’s no wonder that “Gossip Girl” star Leighton Meester worked with the three-piece to create a new version of their hit song “Birthday” as a way to jumpstart her music career. ANR are a pop-culture jellyfish, crafting songs that challenge Girl Talk in their ADD genre-bending glory, quick beats that make Passion Pit sound boring and lyrics that help make their love of Twitter seem totally ok. They’re like that friend who constantly verges on the edge of obnoxiousness but always ends up being totally appealing.
If you have any questions about what this all means, check out how ANR and their label marketed their last two albums, “Rational Geographic I and II.” They went to prominent downloading sites and encouraged the people on the sites to download them for free. It’s a model that has its pulse on our culture—if it makes you dance, you might just buy it. “Geographic” is supposedly a concept album, but it’s mostly just insanely fun, all ridiculous falsetto and absurdly diverse beats. Their lead vocalist goes by Michael John Hancock, also known as MJ, and he often (gulp) one-ups Justin Timberlake in his imitation of the late, great master.
Their new album “Hearts,” which they will be touring on, includes three tracks from the still-free “Geographic” and eight new tracks. These include “Deep Love,” which should get the Gardner crowd excited with its smart people-friendly lyrics—“You’ve got the moves to make me/ finally stay/intellectual/in a sexual mind!”
The cooing, singular chorus of “Deep looovee/ooooo” simply seals the deal—these guys are hot. Come get your pre-Halloween shakes on with them tonight in Gardner at 9 p.m.