If indie rock is a high school, then Washington, DC's The Caribbean -- Michael Kentoff, Matthew Byars, and Dave Jones -- sit at the lunch table with Daniel Higgs, Wayne Coyne, and John Darnielle. But since their inception in 2000, they've always hidden behind something: lyrics, unorthodox chord progressions, slithering melodies, iconic-but-abstract visual art, humor and satire, a nearly un-Google-able band name, and even their own normal-guy appearance. Discontinued Perfume, their first album in three years, began no differently: it was born Municipal Stadium, in the tradition of ambiguous album names like Plastic Explosives and Populations. But then the compass arrow turned. On the suggestion of friend and album co-producer Chad Clark, the song "Discontinued Perfume"-- a reference to the mysteriously doomed Teresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake -- surfaced as the namesake. This change in direction, with a name so open to interpretation and edging on sounding pretty, was no subtle shift, but it resulted in the band's best work to date.
http://schedule.sxsw.com/events/event_MS14226
