Image from MySpace Trans Am, My Education @ MohawkThursday, Nov. 15The Mohawk (912 Red River)9 PM, All ages, $8[info] | [tickets]It's unfriggingbelievable that these guys are on tour with Tool right now. Seriously, it doesn't seem like it was that long ago, standing in crowded bar somewhere, listening to a song called "Ballbados", feeling like there must not be that many people in the world that want to hear instrumental, testosterone-driven synth-rock performed by some......

Originally intended as a side project for members of Bomblast, experimental trio Trans Am have long since produced innovative, electronic post-rock. The band has floated between instrumental noise sessions and vocoder furnished electro-synth over the course of their decade long career. Their eleventh full length, Sex Change (out now on Thrill Jockey) is a result of time spent in opposite corners of the world (Auckland and New York) with the final product created at......

Trans Am - Sex Change Trans Am practice a style of Krautrock, infused with Vietnam-era mood-rock fetishism, that at first glance seems to place them uncomfortably close to the Norwegian retro outfit 120 Days. On closer inspection, however, Trans Am's mostly-instrumental style is far more musically versatile than 120 Days' self-serious posing. Sex Change, while conspicuously lacking the hooks that have made their European counterparts international stars, is light as a feather in comparison to......

Jesu Conqueror (Hydra Head) J.K. Broadrick's past with Napalm Death and Godflesh might have those anxious for Conqueror baffled -- the dense ambient fog and softly managed vocal work might come as a shock. That being said, the album is undeniably heavy, chugging, distorted and dark. The marriage between the agonizingly paced guitars and the sheer depth of their tone in "Bright Eyes" can overpower the sensitively harmonized vocals and synths. As bands like......