The Chinese Stars

Eric Paul and Craig Kureck both inspired and confounded audiences as members of the influential noise-rock combo Arab on Radar. After that act disbanded in 2002, Paul and Kureck formed the Chinese Stars and continued in a similar vein, still making deranged, outré music but incorporating danceable rhythms that would have been out of place in their old project. Sounding like a less dark, but no less spirited or go-go-inflected combination of the VSS and Drive Like Jehu, the Stars, particularly on the newly released Heaven on Speed Dial, take the aesthetic of noise and make it accessible and fun. Probably a little too weird for fans of the Faint and the Rapture, and not oblique enough for noise purists, the Chinese Stars nonetheless bring a wicked sense of humor to their adrenalized performances.