Cult Minneapolis rockers Hockey Night split up a couple of years back, and for a time mainmen Scott Wells and Paul Sprangers continued to operate under that moniker. They altered their musical orientation, got signed to DFA, and recorded an album with LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy playing bass and manning the mixing desk, and Pat Mahoney on drums. FACT was fortunate enough to hear a few tracks at DFA HQ last year and can tell you that they sound great – very un-DFA in a way, with a real high-fidelity, guitar-heavy and totally unironic AM-rock sound reminds us of Tom Petty and great summers.

And now…

The band is a quintet – Sprangers and Wells are joined by Geoff Bucknam, Nicholas Shuminsky and Evan Wells – and they’ve changed their name to Free Energy. DFA are currently giving away a free track by the band, ‘Dream City’, taken from the forthcoming album. It’s the first publicly available material by Free Energy and it’s brilliant, obviously.”

The band is currently working on new material for their next record.

Their blend of complex syncopated rhythms, ground shaking backbeats, and sentimental melodies hits all the sweet spots of a post-rock musical experience- like rocket science meets comfort food, conjuring traces of TV On the Radio, Animal Collective, old-school Michael Jackson, and a night at the symphony.