The Undoing of David Wright/Attractive and Popular/The Bureau

Straight outta Denton, Texas — but sounding more like the house band at London's famed goth club the Batcave, or the Faint lacing up their Doc Martens for a Skinny Puppy show — the Undoing of David Wright are perfect post-modern electro-punks. The trio's tunes feature Lethal Larz's sneering, snot-nosed enunciation and hollow, propulsive beats throbbing like the halcyon days of industrial rockers such as Pop Will Eat Itself — but lack the abrasiveness of that time, thanks to some serious pop chops. Attractive and Popular lean toward the danceable end of the post-punk spectrum; think a less-spiky Rapture, Joy Division on uppers or XTC in its early, whirling-dervish days. In fact, their synth-bops would cause even the stodgiest new-wave preppies to unbutton their Izod shirts and let loose. St. Louis' own dark-synth gurus The Bureau open.