Anavan’s noise, like their name, falls just short of sounding the same forward and backward.
In fact, it’s is even better in reverse, jumbling all those painfully obnoxious love-note lyrics written specially for the band by a tortured fifth grader or brooding middle-school dropout.
Despite the scratchy, desperate screeches of lead vocalist and drummer Aaron Buckly (which his bandmates mimic on their instruments), Anavan does have one trick: keyboardist Molly Williams. When she takes the mic, they’re transformed from spazzcore leftovers to hard-candy pop ‘mdash; an unlikely relief. ‘The Perfect Sound,’ though far from perfect, is Anavan at their apex, so geniously built for doing the robot that any other form of dance doesn’t even have room to occur.
Anavan should normally be avoided, but this is Sun God, so join me under the bottle and next to the stage, dancing the meanest robot ever.