Do Denmark's very hyped, babyfaced postpunks Iceage represent The Shape of Punk to Come?
That slogan was coined by Refused -- another set of Scandinavian agitators, this time from hardcore-obsessed Sweden -- as the title for a 1998 opus-collage of the various rock music microhistories.
Of course, Iceage sounds nothing like the recently reunited '90s innovators. (Refused matched the sass and sexy political allusions of post-emo D.C. with the metallic, hyper-composed technicality of extreme music blenders like the Dillinger Escape Plan.)
We're just actually asking if this tidy quartet of Danish heartthrobs represent the New Wave.
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It can be hard to tell.
On one hand, Iceage employs its fair share of contemporary hardcore's ambiguous "mysterious guy" aesthetics and thematics. The band's members have even been accused of either fetishizing or actually being Nazis. And this was before they signed to Matador Records.
Where this troupe of very-Instagrammable Muppet Baby punksies really makes its biggest impact is with the tunes. We don't know anyone else playing Polaroid-picture-fuzzy punk that draws equally from Fugazi's neo-classicism, the chaos and linearity epitomized by Gravity Records, and a buried knack for pop that smears shoegaze all over Gang of Four-style bounce.
But we suspect that once the Iceage kids wrap their upcoming tour, scheduled around an appearance at Chaos in Tejas, there are going to be a whole lot of new American punk bands that sound just like them.
Iceage and Lower. With New Coke, Suede Dudes, and Last. Friday, June 7, at Churchill's Pub, 5501 NE Second Ave., Miami. Show starts at 10 p.m., and cover costs $10. Call 305-757-1807, or visit churchillspub.com.
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