New York's Blonde Redhead is an excellent reminder of what made "indie" rock independent in the first place. Trying to pin them down, to encapsulate their music in a pithy phrase or two is, to quote the title of their fourth album, like trying to give "an expression of the unexpressible."

Which may be why many reviewers have focused on the fairy tale: A beautiful Japanese girl meets an equally beautiful Italian boy. They become romantically intertwined. With his identical twin brother, they make beguiling, challenging music with poetic lyrics in which the band's personal history is transformed into art.

But the reality, glimpsed at in an early-morning phone call to the group's shared apartment in New York, is slightly less glamorous. They are recovering from their recent trip to Italy. Singer and guitarist Kazu Makino is still jet-lagged and a bit under the weather. Her partner and male counterpart, Amedeo Pace excuses himself to cook for her. Drummer Simone Pace is elsewhere, unmentioned.