We Are Wolves

Invisible Violence (Dare to Care)

First impressions here honk open a synth figure and guitar burp straight out of MGMT, with just enough Death From Above 1979 to assure you this clanging Montreal trio is sérieux. That’s when “Paloma” veers rock en Español, Control Machete meets Plastilina Mosh, so by the time it crests with fingers snapping, We Are Wolves aren’t the only ones jumping around singing “Pa-lo, Polamita mia.” It’s as thrilling an opening as all 2009 clattered, and Invisible Violence rarely lets up. Krautrock mosher “Holding Hands” collides Animal Collective and Ratatat circa 1985, and “Walking Commotion” pushes its own Pretty Hate Machine. “Dreams” begins metronomic then shifts into an electro-skank pulse the Strokes haven’t rocked since their debut. Just as the Violence abates, these Tangerine Dreamers begin rocking a truck chase from a Michael Mann movie (“Reaching for the Sky”), a neat trick repeated later en Français on “La Rue Oblique” as well as on pensive subway atmospheric/closer, “Bounty Waterfalls.” An album made with computers by dance punks with Cramps. (Thu., 1am, Paradise.)

***.5

This article appears in March 19 • 2010.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.