*** Long Hind Legs

LONG HIND LEGS

(Kill Rock Stars)

This rather secretive creature from Olympia, Washington (Vern Rumsey of Unwound and someone identified only as "George"), feeds on negative energy and gloomy emotional states. As one of the disc's more upbeat numbers ("What Are We Doing?/Dogs Restrained") puts it, "In the end we're doomed." Elsewhere Long Hind Legs employ a variety of keyboards, acoustic and electronic drumbeats, bass, and acoustic and electric guitars on songs that echo a depressive yet tuneful and alluring strain of British rock that can be traced back to the Joy Division/New Order school of postpunk, or maybe even David Bowie's Heroes.

The disc opens with a pleasant if rudimentary piano etude ("Icarus Flew") before descending into the dark, bristling mood of the Bowiesque "In America" and spiraling further down the emotional ladder into the cold fluid of "Open Wide." "Numb" offers both a brutally exact anatomy of romantic malaise ("It feels so good to fuck you/I can't feel my cunt") and, along with the more impressionistic "A Curtain Is Drawn, a Veil Is Worn," a reminder that New Order were once a pop band worth caring about. If nothing else, it's encouraging to hear indie-rockers claiming some of Bernard Sumner's arty pretension as their own.

-- Matt Ashare

(Long Hind Legs play upstairs at the Middle East this Wednesday, March 19, with J Church. Call 497-0576.)