Les Savy Fav

[September 3rd, 2008]

[HALF-NAKED ANGULAR PUNK] On last count, more than 175 bands are playing MFNW this year, but only one features a singer who regularly wears diapers onstage. More than any group currently working in the indie-rock realm, Les Savy Fav (pronounced “lay SAH-vee fahv”) perfectly balances a breakneck live show with theatrics that rival the antics of just about any rock act this side of Iggy Pop. Frontman Tim Harrington is notorious for his near-naked forays into the crowd, but it’s the whole band, not just its idiosyncratic leader, which made Let’s Stay Friends one of the best—and most overlooked—rock records of 2007.

A sly nod to its fans, Let’s Stay Friends (released six years after the band’s previous full-length) found Les Savy Fav in a somewhat somber mood, balancing the jittery and angular disco punk it was known for with some more melodic elements and (gasp!) an all-out ballad—which found Harrington trading verses alongside the Fiery Furnaces’ Eleanor Friedberger. Despite growing and mellowing a bit musically, the band is as frantic and spontaneous onstage as ever before. Admit it: Where else will you see a man in a cape and tighty-whities shouting over a perfect hybrid of Jawbox and the Liars in the middle of a sweaty crowd? To echo Harrington’s own words, Les Savy Fav sure will make a lover out of you.