With superlative after superlative being laid upon their wonderfully freewheeling second album, Visiter, San Francisco’s The Dodos will tour Australia for the first time this December ‘08/January ’09.

Whilst lots of late-2000s indie bands boast of archaic and/or exotic influences few use them with the playful energy and brash creativeness that The Dodos do. Country-blues fingerpicking meets African rhythms and metal drumming all tied together by memorable pop hooks might smell like an all-too-wacky description on a band’s Myspace page, but The Dodos turn these far-flung elements into delightfully natural sounding and infectiously melodic music.

Initially just a two piece, and now expanded to three for performances, The Dodos exude raucous energy and visceral intensity in the live setting, stretching the folk blueprint to snapping point by playing it like it was good, old fashioned rock’n’roll.