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Handsome Furs

Who? Wolf Parade guitarist Dan Boeckner and his drum machine-operating fiancée, Alexei Perry, began as a concept band in the winter of 2006. The concept worked pretty well: they booked a European tour before they’d written a song, found a practice space in the apartment of the Arcade Fire, and signed with Sub Pop for their debut, Plague Park, out May 22.

What’s the Deal? With little more than the rickety grind or a drum machine, distorted electric guitar, and Boeckner’s pensive vocal, tunes like “What We Had” and “Snakes on the Ladder” sound like the rural second cousin of Beck. When they add atmospheric electronics and keyboards on tunes “Handsome Furs Hate This City” or “Dead + Rural,” it recalls the big-echo euphoria of My Bloody Valentine or Sparklehorse.

Fun Fact: Before globe-trotting with her fiancée, Perry maintained a career as a writer. One of her poems, “So I Am Told,” appeared in Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul III. NATE CAVALIERI

Now Hear This: Handsome Furs – “What We Had” DOWNLOAD MP3

On the Web:
Handsome Furs at MySpace
Handsome Furs at Sub Pop

Talk: From Jack and Meg to Sonny and Cher, romantically inclined duos have been a pop culture staple. If you had to choose a bandmate-with-benefits, who would it be?

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