Caribou

The last time Dan Snaith came through town, he was operating under a different moniker: Manitoba. But thanks to the threat of a lawsuit by grumpy ol' Handsome Dick Manitoba (of the NYC punk band The Dictators), the Canadian-born tunesmith has changed the name of his outfit to Caribou. It's not the first time Snaith has thrown everyone for a loop. Just when people had him pegged as a new IDM hero based on his pitter-pattery 2001 debut, Start Breaking My Heart, he sprung the multihued, psych-informed Up in Flames in 2003, moving him into the "folktronica" bin along with his good friend and occasional collaborator Kieran Hebden (a.k.a. Four Tet). And yet, when folks went to the shows anticipating a lackadaisical laptop jockey performance, Snaith blew everyone away with a manic full-band experience that included two drummers and a bounty of instruments scattered about the stage. From the sound of Caribou's new album, The Milk of Human Kindness -- which uses Yerself Is Steam-era Mercury Rev, DJ Shadow, and Kraftwerk as its steppingstones to greatness -- I would say to expect a similar kind of giddy madness this time around. But given Snaith's penchant for disorientation, who knows what will happen? The only given is that the music will be sensational.