Radio 4

Despite sounding like gangly hipsters who crawled out of the Lower East Side, the New Yorkers in Radio 4 physically resemble Wall Street stockbrokers blowing off steam after work. But that didn’t keep the band from conjuring some prime Gang of Four angles on its 2000 debut, The New Song and Dance. Nor did it keep Radio 4 from making the underground dance to 2002’s art-punk-clashing masterpiece, Gotham. But like Public Image Ltd. — whose song “Radio 4” gave the band its moniker — Radio 4 tends to evolve drastically with each new release. The band’s latest, Stealing of a Nation, tones down the punk edges in favor of political grandstanding and synthesized head trips plucked right from 1984.