The Shackeltons Give Us A Break

One new band I’ve been digging a lot lately is the Pennsylvania quintet The Shackeltons, perhaps because their music posesses a sturdy spine and enough hip-swagger to make indie’s sweatered set quake in their deck shoes. The band, whose debut album comes out today, has a relentlessness–even on slower numbers–that sounds as if the members have been putting their energy in storage, and letting it simmer for future unleashing on audiences. And they’re a pretty commanding force live, where lead singer Mark Redding has a twitchy persona reminiscent of Ian Svenonius, flinging around flowers and demanding that the audience focus on the crazy noise being created by him and his bandmates. [MySpace / YouTube]