Somewhere deep within the thick smoke machine fog of tonight’s excellent live music choices, like Vision Festival, the Dirty Projectors, Moisturizer, and Peaches, the Annex presents a particularly unique bill consisting of exclusively of members of the Hudson Valley’s musical diaspora. And while you will certainly find more on this site about Hopewell and Silent League, the current full-time bands of New York Night Train’s favorite local siblings of the masculine gender, Jason and Justin Russo, both formerly of Mercury Rev, who perform tonight alongside the experimental sideproject of Rev leaders Jonathan Donahue and Grasshopper, Harmony Rockets, the big surprise of the lineup is the granddaddy of them all, and a formative influence on all of the above…

Agitpop, who, as far as I know, are quietly regrouping for their first New York show since breaking up more than fifteen years ago, are one of the secretly important bands of the 1980s. A band’s band, touring incessantly with the likes of the Minutemen, X, and the Replacements, the trio is one of those entities that, if the Todd P show kids ever did a little homework, would be the holy grail for fans of, on one end, for hyper-musical spazzcore-ish bands like Pterodactyl, and, on the other, the heavy artful power pop noise outfits like Parts and Labor.

And, unlike a number of 1980s greats, Agitpop left behind an astoundingly fresh, adventurous, and well-recorded trio of sonic documents for your both your research and listening pleasure. My personal favorites, Feast of the Sunfish and Back at the Plain of Jars, which get no shortage of play at my DJ nights, with astounding rhythmic daring and sophistication that even surpassed that of their many exceptional contemporaries, are a couple of collections of catchy post-punk songs that land somewhere between The Minutemen’s jagged groove and Pere Ubu’s quirky eccentricity. These records not only haven’t aged a day, but, because underground musical culture has somehow managed to rediscover practically every other great band in a similar vein, particularly in the early 2000s when Liars, Erase Errata, and the like were mining similar territory, Agitpop’s many fine jams remain far from tired or overplayed.

Before I forget, I’m neglecting their third and last brilliant LP, Open Seasons, which synthesized the experimentation and masterful dynamics of its two predecessors with college radio pop of their new label, Twin/Tone. Unfortunately this transitional work was a bridge leading to Stick It – which immersed itself in the rootsy zeitgeist (Reiver pun not intended) of the time at the expense of the elements that made the band special. But three outta four ain’t bad and I can hardly think of another important band from our subcultural lineage whose batting average was .750.

For the life of me I can’t figure out why Agitpop aren’t an indie rock household name. When, I ask, will they find just recognition for their important role in the development of the deconstructionist rock subgenre and the history of American underground music in general? Why aren’t these first three recordings reissued and readily available?

The fact that their final album was made at the height of their popularity and is the most widely available could be the culprit – serving as a superficial distraction from the treasures that lay buried the rich soil beneath. Or perhaps it’s that the first two weren’t on SST or Touch and Go or a similar label with a built-in cult. Or that they hailed from the off-the-map Poughkeepsie instead of scene-towns like NYC or LA or DC or SF or Boston, Chicago, Chapel Hill, Austin, Seattle, etc… I have no idea.

But the main purpose of this scribble is neither to complain about the injustices of the memory mechanics our little niche economy or even call for historic revisionism, I’m here first to inform you of a rare opportunity to check out one of the all-time greats – flying low under the radar and playing a reunion gig first of four at a minor venue… And, second, suggesting that you grab it because you never know if you’ll be fortunate enough to bump into another chance fifteen years down the line.

Agitpop plays tonight at Annex with Harmony Rockets, Hopewell, and the Silent League (go here for details)