Our Band Could Be Your Life

Tonight’s ten-year birthday party for Michael Azerrad's landmark indie-rock tome Our Band Could Be Your Life traces the subjects’ legacies, featuring young acts trying on the songs of his old subjects. While some pairings are notable for their incongruity—say, doe-eyed St. Vincent covering the malevolent Big Black—many are aptly matched. Baltimore electronic artist Dan Deacon tackles Butthole Surfers, which shared his taste for carnivalesque stage spectacle; spazzy Jersey instrumental combo Delicate Steve handles jerky forebears the Minutemen; art-junk duo Buke and Gass covers Fugazi; while blue-collar punk Ted Leo honors Minor Threat.