Garin Pirnia

One of the most head-scratching band names to come along in a while is Reading quartet Does It Offend You, Yeah? As the story goes, bassist James Rushent and keyboardist Dan Coop decided to put some of their homemade songs on MySpace. They needed a name for the project, so they turned on the TV to a scene from the British "Office" in which David Brent goes, "Does it offend you, yeah? My drinking?" Seconds later, the band was born. DIOYY isn’t making a social statement, but some people may refuse to listen because of its unusual name. "It shouldn’t be about not liking a band because of its name," Coop says. "It should be about listening to the music. Look back at some of the names in history." (Let’s Get Out of This Terrible Sandwich Shop springs to mind.)

Upon listening, DIOYY sounds pretty good. On the debut album "You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into," synth-heavy tracks "Battle Royale" and "Let’s Make Out" fuse together electro-rock, pop and dance. "Dawn of the Dead" is an infectious pop-centric song and "With a Heavy Heart" blasts loud rock. "We need to do it properly as a live band, not in front of a laptop," Coop says. "A lot of acts are doing that like Daft Punk with their light shows. If we’re going to play this music, we’re going to play it as a band." Comparisons to French groups Daft Punk and Justice are ostensible, but Coop and company pepper their music with British charm. "When we started writing songs, we were influenced by Ed Banger in Paris," Coop says. "As we went along the band grew into a separate entity. It’s now a different sound, more like a UK sound."

DIOYY is touring with Florida female rap duo Yo Majesty, who is notorious for getting naked during shows. DIOYY is also infamous for getting a bit rowdy during its gigs. "It depends on the crowd," Coop says. "If crowds are up for it, we’ll go crazy. Sometimes it’s not pretty. We’re quite a party band in England. We get drunk and see where it takes us." Coop says destroying instruments is getting to be exorbitant, though. "We’re probably not going to break anything at the beginning of the American tour," says Coop. "Our label will kill us."

Does It Offend You, Yeah? joins headliner Yo Majesty at The Mansion, 2408 North Kedzie, May 13, 8pm. $13.

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(2008-05-06)

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