Preoccupations have a new album, their first since changing their name from Viet Cong, and it's their second self-titled album. The band's original name raised plenty of eyebrows from the start, and eventually prevented them from getting work. The band attempted to brush the controversy off by appealing to their ownnaïveté, which seems credible enough. There's no doubt a lot of pressure to be edgy in a way that doesn't hurt anyone, but frightens everyone by just a tiny bit. My own ignorance led me to believe that "joy" and "division" were words that when combined exclusively described a band, but it turns out there are dark things within those shadows.
It's probably just as well they changed the name, because the band is good, taking its sonic cues from bands like the aforementioned Joy Division, The Cure, and Echo and the Bunnymen.
Left Of The Dial airs Friday nights from 9-11 and Saturdays from noon-2 on KRCU radio at 90.9FM, 88.9FM, and online at krcu.org.
