Republic Tigers/Nada Surf

A crew of digital-age composers, the Republic Tigers pass around song files like intraband demos, loading them onto ProTools rigs and sculpting massive creations from the initial song chunks. Starting with the hard elements of rock — guitar, drums, bass line, melody – the Kansas City band stacks on vocal layers, atmospheric keyboards, sampled sounds, chimes, echoes, hums, whirs and whatever else sounds good at the time. In creating these brilliant, crystalline pop hymns, the Tigers blur the line between old-fashioned songwriting and computerized songmaking. "The Nerve," a song about a robot boy longing for a human girl found on its debut Keep Color, illustrates the concept perfectly. Erstwhile heartfelt-pop underdogs Nada Surf headline.