The New Ben Franklins get electric at the hi-dive on April 20

Chances are you can’t name many active bands that play original material and have been around for twenty years — much less one that has regularly evolved and experimented with its sound without always jumping on some musical bandwagon. That’s been the path of the New Ben Franklins (due this Friday, April 20, at the hi-dive) since 1992, but they’ve more fully integrated shimmery atmospherics and psychedelia into their current sound, which you’ll hear on their upcoming full-length, [peter gabriel]. It would be easy to peg the outfit as yet another Americana band from Denver, but the group is actually closer to moodier alchemists of that aesthetic, like Luna or Calexico: Rock-and-roll attitude, caustic wit and an exuberant yet melancholic spirit set this quartet apart from many of its peers.