w/Sahara Hotnights, the Washdown

Mon March 24, Graceland, 8 pm, $10 (all ages).

If you think mainstream rock was a steaming pile of poodle shit in the U.S. in the late '90s, try living in England. According to Paul Resende, vocalist for the kohl-smeared post-punk act Ikara Colt, his band formed in reaction to the musical ruling class of 1999, which he says completely sucked. "It was either really down singer-songwriter stuff or this very corporate American metal," he says from a tour van on the band's first U.S. trek. "We wanted something that was energetic and hard-hitting, yet wasn't completely metal, something articulate yet powerful."

Together with guitarist Claire Ingram, bassist Jon Ball, and drummer Dominic Young, the band has managed to hit all those points and then some, coming together like Sonic Youth with an amphetamized Fall. Ingram, who has claimed in interviews to create her guitar parts not based on chords but from copying abstract sounds like passing cars, lays down the fast, ominous vibe that Young and Ball cover in an equally dark, rhythmic gale. Resende's often deadpan spoken-word vocals add to the serious yet energetic aesthetic of the group's debut, Chat and Business. What else would you expect from a band that met in art school?

Resende says the band's schooling seeped into their music. "We're not afraid to try new things. There's no formula to this band, and we're not going to do something because we know it works. We'll do the opposite, in a way."

For a band so stubbornly working against the status quo, it didn't take long for the labels to notice Ikara Colt: They were signed after their fourth show, something Resende calls "a bit of getting dropped in the deep end." Since then they've had the requisite flattering NME blowjobs and Peel session. While their buzz in the U.S. is still fairly new, it should be spiraling a little faster by the time they reach the West Coast, and while this country just starts to catch on to their sound, the band is already looking forward. Adds Resende, "We take to making very different styles of music and jamming them all together and just seeing what happens."