Rife with '80s references ("Nintendo Power": the magazine or the adrenaline rush of beating Super Mario Brothers on one life? You decide.) and indie-rock style metaphor ("Lipstick" is like shooting fish in a barrel, taking shots at hipsters who are too busy looking for skinny jeans to let loose), The Dance Party want nothing more than to party. Sort of a new-wave Spicoli (Aloha, Mr. Hand!) without the amotivational syndrome, the band's debut full-length album Friction! Friction! Friction! is 80s trivia for music nerds.

The Dance Party are from College Park (roughly) and spread their message of celebration by popping out raucous get-off-your-keister guitar riffs ("A-list"), banging out Bloc Party songs better than Bloc Party managed to do on their latest album ("Indie Beat", "Lipstick"), and altogether reinterpreting the 80s for kids who grew up in the 90s. In fact, if Ric Ocasek were looking for a prototype for bringing back The Cars, and we're not talking The New Cars because that was a big mistake, but The Cars for the next generation, he'd do well to use The Dance Party as the focus group. Hey, Ric, since you're done producing Weezer records, come to Maryland, hit up PG County, and work out the next album for these guys: that would be legendary.

Breaking out the ultra-outdated Mac voice on "Sex Disco", picture Max Headroom in a Eurodisco, tick-tick-ticking to a bouncy dance beat, and you're almost hip to what The Dance Party are all about. The music isn't all about technical proficiency (it's really hard to play as good as Andy Summers, though the solos on "New Wave Drugs" and "A-list" show potential) or dismissing fun music because it lacks "indie cred," it's about spazzing out like a wild child, rocking out, and acting a fool.

Catch The Dance Party at 9:30 Club on December 15, and buy Friction! Friction! Friction! at CDBaby.

Tags: Album Reviews, any given tuesday, maryland