Nic Offer is sitting on a couch in a private room above the Liquid Room venue in Ebisu, cutting a less imposing figure than he does when he's on stage. Maybe it's the hair. "You got it cut short," a female acquaintance notices after popping in to say hello. Offer's usually unkempt curly locks add to his wild image when he's fronting the band !!! (verbalized anyway you like but usually as "chk-chk-chk"), which turns into a pounding, sweating beast in concert.

He's in Japan promoting their new album, "Myth Takes," but at the moment he's talking about Tapes 'n Tapes, which he saw the previous night in a Tokyo club. "I was like, 'This is what all the buzz is about?" he says. "The American music media is now fixated on this '90s emo thing, and as far as that goes, they're perfect."

Several years ago, the American music media were fixated on so-called dance punk, the minimalist funk coming out of Brooklyn and spearheaded by groups like The Rapture and !!!. At the time, dance-punk was considered fresh, radical even. The music had a purpose, which was to reassert dancing as the main reason for going to a rock concert -- not moshing or slamming, but dancing with your significant other to channel the old sexual urges and free your mind.