I’ve had so many interesting experiences I want to blog about that I decided to take a break in the middle of the week to look back on years past.  In January, I’m going to highlight my best music experiences of 2008.

It’s only fitting to kick off this series by writing about my favorite musical discovery of the past year.

This is entertainment/Lies are entertainment

I was introduced to Innerpartysystem at Kill Hannah’s 2007 New Heart for Xmas V fan show, before getting to know them properly during the summer of 2008 when they rejoined Kill Hannah as a support act on the Hope for the Hopeless tour.  The first impression is indelible.  The wall of lights onstage begins to flash, slave to a beat that builds into an aggressive dance explosion, four black silhouettes writhing with their instruments in the foreground.  The songs flow from one to the other, giving the audience no time to catch their breath and leaving little room for banter or any other filler.  The audience is left wondering if they just saw a band play or a night of chemical-fueled excess pass before them onstage.

Nothing’s too excessive/When you’ve got nothing left

The music is rock-driven electronic dance, with witty and provocative lyrics that both revel in and revile today’s fame-driven culture.  They explore the edgier side of human nature: obsessive love, the excess of the party and club scene found thriving in major cities, disillusionment.  The beats are relentless, with refrains that have the whole audience jumping, hands in the air, screaming along.  In addition to the intense live show, Innerpartysystem has engaged their love of all things visual with disturbingly engrossing promotional videos, as well as vaguely sinister music videos to Don’t Stop and Die Tonight, Live Forever.  They strive to engage all the senses with their work.

We’re all here ‘cos we’ve lost control

The aggressive stage show and lyrics belie four laid-back and friendly guys.  It only takes a few minutes of talking with vocalist Patrick, drummer Jared, keyboardist Jesse and guitarist Kris to realize that these are four intelligent men who have seen and lived a great deal.  They are keenly perceptive and intensely creative, yet absolutely unassuming.  It’s refreshing in a genre full of “musicians” armed with only a laptop and a sense of entitlement.  I think that genuineness translates and makes their themes and presentation accessible to a wide audience, rather than the generic pretentiousness that is all too common in dance-rock.

I will surround your heart with lies/’Til the end

Innerpartysystem were on tour for much of 2008, both in Europe and at home.  They were featured all over television and they were nominated to be featured as part of Yahoo’s “Who’s Next.”  They were also in a Spin magazine contest where they re-enacted a scene from “The Big Lebowski,” which had me wondering what these four Wunderkinder couldn’t do.  2009 looks to be an even bigger year for them.  They are hitting the ground running with a small warm-up tour of the northeastern US before heading back to Europe.  There is also talk of them playing this year’s Warped tour.  Check out their winter tour dates, and if you can’t make it to see them live (which you should, just to experience their mind-melting cover of Joy Division’s “Transmission”), be sure to spend some time on their YouTube Channel.  Their debut EP, The Download EP is a must-buy, and their self-titled full-length album is amazing as well.

Innerpartysystem are one of the increasingly rare perfect storms of talent, ambition, strong work ethic, and fierce belief in a vision of what music should be.  They put every ounce of their effort toward that vision, and it is an all-encompassing experience for the senses, whether live or on disk.