Alt-J

The psychedelic-tinged art rockers of Alt-J (whose name is the Mac keyboard stroke for a Greek delta sigil) won last year’s U.K. Mercury Prize for their debut full-length, An Awesome Wave. Aside from the fact that songs like the twangy “Breezeblocks” and sparsely arranged “Fitzpleasure” are catchy and inoffensive, the real reason they deserve recognition is for their clever interpolations of prog-rock, folk, and highbrow minimalism, as well as oblique allusions to Where the Wild Things Are in the lyrics to “Breezeblocks” and Raphael’s The School of Athens in their “Tessellate” video. Somehow, they pull it off.

Fri., March 22, 8 p.m., 2013