Junior Boys

How'd you like to get beat up? It's easy. Just put the Junior Boys' synth-tronic debut on at a party before 3 a.m. If you don't get smacked down, you'll certainly get called a sissybuttpumper (not that there's anything wrong with being that). Why the strong reaction? Because Last Exitis gay, gay, gay. Not gay in the "junior high put-down" way or the "screw people of the same sex" way, but gay in the "get a $100 haircut, then go drink absinthe and dance forlornly in your room" way. The kind of gay that makes delicate, spacey synths and slithering beats (reminiscent of '80s acts like Giorgio Moroder, AR Kane, and Tangerine Dream) sound good, especially when the singer whispers lovesick tales in a gentle croon, as if he were a neutered Darryl Hall. Eerie post-house pop that doesn't have a macho bone in its body -- that's the world of the Junior Boys, a Hamilton, Canada, trio that's mmm, mmm, gay, er, good.