The latest CARIBOU album is called The Milk of Human Kindness (Domino), and most of its songs are named after animals (“Hello Hammerheads,” “Lord Leopard,” and so on), but I still like to imagine that the title’s a sarcastic dig at old New York punk Handsome Dick Manitoba: Caribou mastermind Dan Snaith, who used to record under the name Manitoba, had to pick a new alias last year after the former Dictators front man threatened to sue. It’s hard to imagine that Handsome Dick thought anybody might confuse the two: Snaith’s stuff is layered with spacey Silver Apples synths, earnest Beach Boys harmonies, and surging drum breaks. Snaith puts his albums together by himself, using a computer and a stack of records, but he’s taken steps to distance himself from the laptop set: he tours with two confederates, Ryan Smith and Peter Mitton, and the three of them play all the parts they haven’t left to the computer, switching between keyboard, guitar, and two drum kits. They’re leaving the bear masks at home this time, but they will project cartoons on a screen. –Bill Meyer
