Owls

Owls are nocturnal animals, so they should have no problem playing venues at which the headlining act starts rocking well after midnight. However, the type of music this quartet plays -- jazz-tinged indie rock with plaintive vocals -- tends to render listeners somnolent. Fortunately, Owls drop a potent pep pill into this glass of warm milk. Mike Kinsella's skittering drumbeats provide the group's pulse, and singer Tim Kinsella eschews the lazy, don't-give-a-hoot monotone favored by many of his peers in the genre. As a result, songs such as "I Want the Blindingly Cute to Confide in Me" are less airy than their painfully clever titles imply. Three of the group's members graduated from the computer-assisted-recording class known as Joan of Arc, but here, it's just shimmering guitars and erratic rumbles from the rhythm section, with Steve Albini's involvement ensuring an organic sound that's just a bit too noisy for naptime.