The Stills

To us, the video accompanying the Stills' new song, "Snake-Charming the Masses," is a rock'n'roll equivalent of the Yule Log: a seemingly endless video stream of fire that allows us to pay closer attention to the musical accompaniment. And in this case, the Stills are doing something far more fascinating than "Jingle Bells." After the confused, misguided detour that was 2006's Without Feathers, the Montreal quintet is now looping back towards the sexy post-punk that dignified their debut, Logic Will Break Your Heart.

Built atop a kick-heavy surge of percussion that reminds me of that scary, thunderous segment of the Terminator theme, "Snake-Charming" -- from their next full-length, out late summer -- grows into a furious stormer by track's end, with globs of distorted bass and jetscream guitars bolstering Tim Fletcher's seductive croon. We liked their new output at last fall's Pop Montreal fest, and we like this even better.

Oh, and the video part? Well, see for yourselves:

The Stills play Pittsburgh tonight, Hoboken tomorrow, and NYC on Saturday before four gigs at SXSW.

On the Web:
thestills.net