There are many things about the band Kapluckus that defy categorization. On their MySpace page they list their influences as Weezer and Lauryn Hill. Add to that Alicia Keys, Akon, Joss Stone, They Might Be Giants, and a touch of the rock-musical Rent and you’ll get even closer to an understanding of their sound.

This may seem farfetched, but you’ll begin to get it when you hear Kapluckus’ earworm tune “Enough to Convince Me” which combines soulful singing and rap interludes seamlessly. The catchy “100th Sight” could be a disco dance hit, and “Don’t You Remember” is a Weezer-esque waltz. No, I’m not kidding.

I personally think we’re ready for more cross-genre bands like this; groups like Linkin Park and Evanescence have paved the way. In fact, Amy Lee would probably want to cover “Sing Me to Sleep” if she heard it.
It’s a dark, dark world
So lie to me
And sing me to sleep

Refreshingly, though, Kapluckus is far less serious for the rest of the album, their lyrics sometimes verging on silly. How many other bands can get away with the song “Osama bin Laden”?:

Osama dated women with minds of their own
They went out to work while he stayed at home
He enjoyed cooking and cleaning and washing the clothes
Before he decided that he didn’t like us, before he changed his mind.

I’m not even sure Barenaked Ladies would touch that. Kapluckus shows their music school roots with a capable rendition of classical composer Franz Schubert’s “Du Bist Die Ruh.” Meanwhile, the opening track, “Aquarium Girl,” offers a (conscious or subconscious) nod to Madonna:

They all wanna get close to her
She lets them wonder
She’s an aquarium girl
In an aquarium world
And they’ll never get enough
Cause they can look but never touch

The best part of all this? If you live in the New River Valley, you may even know some of the band members. Four out of five members come from Radford, including Michael Gregory, whose name you might recognize from an earlier NetCatch–or by catching The Gregory Brothers live at the Coffee Mill. Gregory, joined by Jacob Crigler, Stuart Harrison, and Jamie Forest, met vocalist Constance Waddell at Appalachian State.

Maybe, just maybe, you know all this because you caught Kapluckus on the WVRU’s The Listening Room the other night. If not, you definitely need to get acquainted with them by picking up the Kapluckus album, Endless Space.

Taryn Chase followed the goofy Canadian band Moxy Früvous for two years. She likes quirky.