In a city dominated by an ever-burgeoning hip-hop scene and a plethora of lo-fi indie acts, one might expect Lookbook ‘s ’80s-inspired dance-rock to draw snickers and sneers from snarky onlookers. But with a critically acclaimed debut album, a sprawling west-coast tour and a homecoming show this Friday at the First Avenue main room to mark the tour’s end, this statement couldn’t be further off base.
“Minneapolis is just so good to us, you know?” Grant Cutler said while sipping coffee in San Diego as he and his band mate Maggie Morrison took a break from their taxing tour.
Formed in 2008, Lookbook are a gutsy collaborative effort between singer Morrison and digital handyman Cutler. Their flashy electronic dance rock is so unabashedly cheesy it makes Lady Gaga’s shtick seem classy. If this sounds like a knock against the band, it’s not.
On their debut LP, “Wild At Heart ,” released last September, Cutler’s colossal walls of glossy digital sound and Morrison’s soaring vocals produce a pure, unapologetic homage to the long-forgotten era of glamorous ’80s discotheque. While Cutler may have been playing in a punk band before teaming up with Morrison, he insists the shift in styles wasn’t all that jarring given his musical versatility.
“Six or seven years ago I got really into electronic music and synthesizers and [expletive],” Cutler said. “But I’ve always liked so many different kinds of music it didn’t seem weird for me to go from one to another.”
Cutler said the pair never had lofty ambitions for the project from the get-go.
“It was, like, six months of just joking around and not really doing anything. Then we kind of figured that we might actually want to make a real band out of this idea, and then we got a show together and it went well,” Cutler said.
As Lookbook safely trots under the umbrella of electronic dance-rock, the band doesn’t offer anything unique or different, but that’s not to say Lookbook is all glam and no guts.
Ultimately, the end result is a sleek, finely tuned production that is as respectable as it is cheesy.