If you can set aside the I'm-from-Texas branding-- and the tiny fact that people are actually dying in Iraq-- much of American politics in the past decade might look a bit like one East Coast preppie trying to get his revenge on the others. Bush v. Gore? Whatever, Dad hired a few of the guys on the Supreme Court. Bush vs. Kerry? Dude, all that wine, windsurfing, and pursuing a policy of nuclear containment may have impressed the chodes at St. Paul's, but when you're grown-up you realize people will like you better if they think you're the sort of guy dumb enough to choke on a pretzel. "Tessellate", from Tokyo Police Club's forthcoming Elephant Shell, administers beat-downs, broken hearts, and vaguely political language in just such a schoolyard setting, for more of the handclapping, Strokes-sharp guitar-pop that made the Canadian band Forkcast regulars last year.

Directed by Michael & Miguel, the video for the song opens with a scene of coat- and tie-wearing prep-school lads in front of bright red lockers, sipping from water fountains or getting out of class. Then it's blazers off for two of the boys, as they push each other's khaki-bedecked asses onto the wood floor of the school gymnasium. Friends and family look on from a weird sort of U.N. viewing deck, sitting behind placards with their names on them as they monitor the damage on their various screens. A knockout punch! Mom isn't happy. "There's no fun in playing cowboys for pretend," Dave Monks sings. Oh, isn't there? (via Subterranean)

[from Elephant Shell; due 04/22/08 on Saddle Creek in the U.S. and 05/05/08 on Memphis Industries in the UK]