The Rosebuds

In Annie Hall Woody Allen's character Alvy Singer notes that a romantic relationship is like a shark: It has to keep moving forward, or it will die. This advice is doubly true for Ivan Howard and Kelly Crisp, the married couple who's also the core of the Rosebuds. The North Carolina band has continually moved forward over the course of four studio albums, and has completely overhauled its sound and aesthetic in the process. The Gothic overtones and downtempo Southern rock of 2005's Birds Make Good Neighbors transformed into a synth-and-sampler flurry on 2007 's Night of the Furies, an album that's essentially a love letter to New Order. The Rosebuds returned to guitar-based rock & roll with last year's Life Like, but the dark-tinted urgency of post-punk and moody new wave, along with Howard's beguiling tenor croon, make a seductive pairing.