The Epoxies

A popular explanation for the latest new-wave revival holds that listeners are seeking a return to fun, sexy songs. That theory might be true, but it ignores the genre’s intellectual appeal. In the ’80s, new wave was to music what science fiction is to literature. Songwriters explored societal alienation and technological terrors, then packaged their paranoia-ridden product with interstellar-travel-ready outfits and glitzy keyboard melodies. The Epoxies’ Stop the Future revisits those heady times, but instead of pondering tomorrow’s threats, it cowers from today’s widely accepted appliances. In Roxy Epoxy’s lyrics, televisions and microwaves hide mind-control mechanisms, and the “fate of humankind” is at stake. Her dead-serious delivery sells her smartly constructed scenarios, which are rich with double meanings and abrupt about-faces. As for new wave’s visceral thrills, The Epoxies do fun-and-sexy better than any suit-clad British boys. Epoxy’s voice recalls Debbie Harry’s — in her Videodrome performance as an alluringly erotic virtual-reality temptress more than her relatively demure Blondie vocals — and the group’s cyberpunk hooks evoke the Descendents at their catchiest.