Les Savy Fav

With a frenzied live performance souped up by the unflappable theatrics of imposing frontman Tim Harrington (bearded, balding, and paunchy, an unlikely sex symbol), NYC indie rock band Les Savy Fav built up a fabled following in the late 1990s and early `00s. The band incorporates some of the jagged, pulsating insistence of Joy Division, the unbridled punk fire of the Stooges, and the spatial experimentation of Sonic Youth; it is all cut to shreds by Harrington's primal yet impossibly melodic interpretation of otherworldly lyrics just this side of schizophrenia. A series of critically lauded records on their own Frenchkiss label stoked the outfit's legend through the 00s.

• rock
• indie rock
• 2000s