Friday Jan 11, 2008 (11:30pm)
Like Black Dice and Animal Collective before them, Brooklyn noiseniks Excepter have risen above the dark, basement-bound masses by tempering their noise-rock ethos with (relatively) accessible elements. What was once a mess of disorganized dissonance is now a regimented mass of trance-inducing, industrial punk, with intersecting yelps and bizarre static driven by a series of hypnotic grooves. Courting static from another source entirely, avant-guitar wunderkinds Ecstatic Sunshine speed through pep-pilled Sonic Youth-style guitar duels like a pair of Ritalin-ridden Glenn Brancas. Keeping the cacophony in check, Religious Knives open tonight's late show with a bit of dark, psychedelic sludge.
– Andrew Phillips