The Whigs, and What Made Milwaukee Famous

Just as it's rare to have the U.S. president and vice president at the same public event, lest a deranged lunatic take them both out in one fell swoop, it seems slightly dangerous to the state of the indie-rock union to have the Whigs and What Made Milwaukee Famous sharing a bill. The Whigs, from indie hotbed Athens, Georgia, represent everything that is flat-out fun about a group of white guys banging around in their garage. On their latest, Mission Control, the trio is all power chords, drums, and crazy catchiness, and who cares what the hell any of the lyrics mean? On the other side of the coin — and hailing from the college-rock stronghold of Austin, Texas — WMMF represent the best of what Spoon has inspired in our country's next generation of brainy songwriters. Their recent sophomore record, What Doesn't Kill Us, further indulges the band's delight in textured instrumentation, cool noises, and quirky vibes. As excited as we are to catch them together live, shouldn't we really be quarantining these two groups in a bombproof shelter underground, so that if the nuclear holocaust occurs, they can repopulate the planet with more bands of their kind?