Preview: Blk Jks, TV Torso at Emo's [Tonight]

Johannesburg’s Blk Jks made more than a few new fans during their last stop in Austin for SXSW. Having built up a good head of steam with their first EP, they were one of the bands that everyone seemed to be buzzing about. Seven months later, they return to Emo’s outside with a brand-new full length under their belt, the ambitious After Robots. The record is a cavernous-sounding, guitar-based rock record that fuses elements of prog, mbaqanga, experimental noise, metal, and dub, and stands in stark contrast to Kwaito, the popular music of South Africa’s post-apartheid generation. Overall, the band and album are one of the few bright exports from a city with a 37% unemployment rate, in a country that's still struggling to build a reliable infrastructure.

They’ve been tagged by super-producer Diplo as the “African TV on the Radio,” but Blk Jks' dramatic vocal delivery, intertwining lead guitars, and polyrhythmic beats make them closer cousins with the out-there Latin prog-excursions of The Mars Volta than TV on the Radio’s synth-rock. Their live show has the reputation as being just as bombastic as their records, and their set at Emo’s tonight should be a great way to brighten up an otherwise gloomy Monday Night. Locals TV Torso and Wine & Revolution open the show.

Blk Jks [Official] [MySpace]
TV Torso [Official]
Wine & Revolution [MySpace]