I’m one of those arch rock snobs who always feels superior to “NPR bands.” Not all—hey, I love me The Real Tuesday Weld, for instance, The Langley Schools Music Project and The Ghetto Brothers—but you know what I mean. There’s a certain “grad school” stigma that NPR’s musical gestalt has for me. It’s hard for me to put my finger on it, but hopefully I’m managing to get some kinda point across here…

Which brings me to Public Service Broadcasting, who, NPR-endorsed or not (their debut longplayer can currently be streamed from the NPR website) are worthy of your attention, but your audio and visual attention. These guys—well, really it’s one main guy, the bow-tied dandy J. Willgoose Esq. and his drummer sidekick Wrigglesworth—do something that’s actually pretty innovative. Although the music is good—very good indeed and very varied, too—and can be enjoyed on its lonesome, there’s a really amazing video mixing/collage thing they do in their live performance that’s really… distinctive.

Public Service Broadcasting doesn’t fit into any easy electronic dance music category (The Books and the similarly named Emergency Broadcast System are the sole comparisons that come readily to mind). They use clips from old British (and sometimes American) government propaganda films (I believe through some arrangement with the British Film Institute) and they construct this rubbery, bouncy, almost motorik-sounding beat-driven music. But it’s not some boring thing with a man and his laptop, J. Willgoose Esq. is as likely to be seen with a sampler onstage as he is to be seen plucking a banjo.

Public Service Broadcasting’s Inform Educate Entertain album drops on November 19th.