Dogs Die in Hot Cars

Despite its moniker -- which sounds like a junior high hardcore kid's idea of a hilarious band name -- Dogs Die in Hot Carsis yet another UK group keeping the new-wave revival torch burning brightly. The Scotland quintet's debut disc, Please Describe Yourself, often feels like the peony-trampling offspring of XTC. Vocalist Craig Macintosh wails in the reedy upper register favored by reclusive Andy Partridge, and the rest of the band focuses on the intellectual wackiness and Fisher Price-colorful textures of XTC singles such as "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead." Providing further evidence of its heritage, the ska skiffle of "I Love You Cause I Have To," a dead ringer for the zany shenanigans of Madness, sounds like a picnic on a breezy summer day -- even as its lyrics detail the drudgery of a relationship gone mundane.