Some of us WIUSers have spent the past several weeks plowing through thousands of pieces of vinyl from the '80s and '90s looking for stuff that might be of interest to today's modern disc jockey. Most of it is not of interest to anyone, except perhaps the thousands of faceless, long-haired rockers who actually recorded the stuff. I swear, if I see one more sticker advertising an exciting mix of the Bodeans and Soul Asylum, I'm going to weep. Openly.\nBut looking at all this stuff really gets you thinking about the longevity of the music we listen to today. Twenty years from now, probably only 10 percent of today's popular indie rock will be remembered by anyone but the most hard-core music geek. Pavement? Yeah, probably. Ultimate Fakebook? Well, I don't want to step on anyone's toes, but…\nWhich brings us to Bis. When the Scottish band first came to prominence in the mid-1990s, I can't imagine many people thought it would last that long. That whole self-consciously juvenile punk-pop thing sure was fun, but was it, you know, "important"? The band gets bonus points for doing its thing when either Blur or Oasis' brand of brit pop ruled the charts, but it was hardly genre-defining.\nBut five years on, it's a stranger world, and Bis claims to be making music for it. This EP, released in the United Kingdom last year on its long-time British label Wiija, marks the band's U.S. departure from Grand Royal (the Beastie Boys' label that is better at magazines than signing quality recording artists), and arrival at Lookout! Records, the label that gave our generation its very own Runaways, The Donnas. \nThis six-track EP continues the band's slow development in a dancier direction, from its last full-length, 1999's Social Dancing, to the forthcoming new album, due this summer. And you know what? The band's making a viable stab toward durability. This album is unmistakably Bis, but it's Bis doing an early-'80s new wave record with modern dance production. Catchy but not precious, well-produced but not overproduced, but most of all fun. The only disappointment is that "How Can We Be Strange?" is not, as I originally heard it, "How Can We Pee Straight?". Finally, I thought -- a song addressing the untold millions suffering from urinary direction anxiety. Alas, it's not to be. No matter; this disc will rock your world for 23 punk-disco minutes.
Track list:\n1. Dead Wrestlers\n2. Are You Ready?\n3. How Can We Be Strange?\n4. I Want It All\n5. Beats at the Office\n6. Punk Rock Points
