Kill Me Tomorrow

Back in the day, all you needed was a cool independent music store to go browsing through—and sometimes you would happen upon a band you never heard of that was a pleasant surprise.

This album from San Diego trio Kill Me Tomorrow reminds me of discovering cool bands in the early ‘80s, mainly because they sound heavily ‘80s influenced (Wire, Joy Division), though their catchy melodies and somewhat dark tales are updated with samples and other electronic outbursts of distortion.

These are danceable, efficiently layered songs matching wiry guitar and bass to trippy keyboard and special effects, with another neat thing you don’t usually see on indie rock records: several remix versions of songs that create a washy residual effect. About the main song, “Liaison,” the liner notes read: “a young drug addict/ dealer finds he can no longer make his contacts and support his habit and increasingly paranoid girlfriend. Soon we begin to wonder if there ever were any contacts, a girlfriend or even a drug!”

This is a pretty cool and interesting nod to early-'80s post-punk sound, deconstructed with the fresh tools of electronica. And the group even thanks Chico locals the North Magnetic in their album liner notes. What sweethearts. Old Joy Division fans should definitely check out this show.

Kill Me Tomorrow performs at the Senator on Wednesday, Nov. 28 with the North Nagnetic and Danelo.