The Van Burens are not your run-of-the-mill, garden variety sort of party band.

By Nick Moorhead

The Van Burens are some of the most gifted musicians who play around Boston regularly. With multiple members of the group possessing degrees in music from Ivy League schools, you would expect a pretension similar to all the dime-a-dozen bands ripping off Vampire Weekend’s vibe these days. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Van Burens are too smart to put on airs. Not pretentious, yet bearing an overpowering intellect, fun loving without verging into goofball territory, the Van Burens are the party band for people who like to party but don’t like waking up with Sharpie-drawn genitalia marring their faces.

After subjecting their fans to a five-year wait for a new record following their excellent Eager EP, the VB’s released the new EP out of nowhere last month, which is apparently the only way to release an anticipated album right now (see Beyonce’s latest effort). Though the abrupt release was a surprise, the Van Burens had spent months recording at studios across New England, spending a chunk of time at Q Division Studios in Somerville. They also worked with visionary producer Matthew Vitti in Connecticut.

Is it possible to be totally zoned in and completely zoned out? If it is, the Van Burens have mastered this technique. Boisterous, wild, yet utterly zoned, the new Van Burens EP is buried treasure. Their performance at the Wonderbar left me stunned, an exhilarating, bravura set with the best visuals this side of Laser Floyd – professional and slick. Washington (a Brad Neely cover) re-imagines a founding father as a rap god. An uplifting, resilient jammer, highlight This Town is a heartfelt, flawless ode to Boston. Live, they’re sort of like Widespread Panic.

The EP is a different story altogether. While the Wonder Bar release party was a wild time, the studio-recorded music is dark, edgy and paranoid. Evoking 1984-esque NSA workers leering from the shadows while perpetuating conspiracy theories of JFK, there are some heady ideas percolating throughout the work. Humor is infused throughout, such as the VB’s positing that JFK had 30 penises. The Van Burens also expand beyond the frat rock of Eager, injecting some electronic, ambient psychedelia to serve as interludes between their beautiful, horns-heavy party jams. The artwork for the CD is quite striking; Caleb Williamson’s illustrations capture the group’s mysterious mojo well. Imagine a Wes Anderson directed South Park, or John Stewart hosting Mystery Science Theater 3000, and you’re getting close. You eventually start getting the feeling, were Trey Anastasio at Wonderbar, he would have been taking notes.