Office Space is a great movie, because anyone that’s ever had an office job can relate to most – if not all – of Peter Gibbons’ quandaries and one is left wondering, “How did I get here?” Built By Animals explores that precise question on Corporate Syndrome. The opener, “Teenage Rampage,” begins with a jewel-toned, jerky guitar that has garnered the band comparisons to Vampire Weekend’s westernized afrobeat style. The rest of the EP also references early Weezer, Guster and Modest Mouse. “Spreadsheets” may just become the unofficial anthem of the tired, repressed office worker with its true-to-life lyrics. The band is playing the Economy Bites culinary TV show 1-yr anniversary party on 10.09 and then a CMJ show on October 23 at the Lit Lounge. -N.C.

MiniBoone come from a world where the Talking Heads reign supreme, and where people have attention spans that last longer than 30 seconds. These guys excel at packaging remarkable musical complexities into feverishly catchy pop songs, so much so that it’s easy to breeze through their 7-inch without fully appreciating how difficult it is to produce something both quirky and impetuous that doesn’t necessarily come across as such. “Devil In Your Eyes” should have a little sticker on it that says “Caution: This song comes spring-loaded.” Each unison chorus propels the next verse forward with such energy that by 2:23 it’s got no place left to go and pulls a Layla, dropping us off into an extended guitar solo and outro that’s at least as memorable as the song itself. I haven’t seen MiniBoone live (yet), but I imagine the experience would be something like freebasing cocaine while doing windsprints on a rollercoaster. The most exciting music isn’t always the most frenetic, and MiniBoone is a case in point. MiniBoone manages to overwhelm the senses without taking up every last inch of the musical soundscape–there’s space to breathe, to ponder the music as it’s happening. But not too much. It’s a carefully (and perfectly) constructed balance that most bands struggle to find and never quite achieve. – Ben Heller – Read Dale Eisenger’s Q&A with the band here.

NYC electro-dance and pop duo (and dating couple?) The Hundred in the Hands, “came together” on the road, “playing one another tracks in a van,” that ranged from disco, to French house to post punk music gods like New Order and The Cure. Call it Kerouacian inspiration because upon returning home they wrote the upbeat, guitar-screeching “Dressed in Dresden.” These two will be making their self-titled LP debut today (!) with dance heavy tracks that offer energy and clap happy, basement-feel sounds. Starting off with the slower-building “Young Aren’t Young,” and progressing into the catchy “Pigeons,” it’s clear that THITH are doing that DIY thing and doing it well. They are also good at making tracks that really make you just wanna dance. – Read Vann Alex’s interview about their recording experience on Delicious Audio.

When we were young, some of us now thirty somethings fell in love with a record label called 4AD (pre Pixies-Throwing Muses period) and with the intriguing and liquid sounds of some of its dark, dreamy, suspenseful and at times even mystic records. Bands like Dead Can Dance, Cocteau Twins, Cranes and This Mortal Coil were in different but parallel ways incredibly original innovators, and extremely influential in the UK scene that was about to produce the shoegazer movement. Brand new NYC based project Quiet Lights seems to be inspired by the subtler, more atmospheric sounds this scene produced in the mid 80s: liquid guitar drones and tribal drums create an ever changing sonic carpet on which dreamy female melodies float with hypnotizing effect. All the dreamers out there should check this band out at Bowery Electric on 10.03 (it’s free if you RSVP here).