Before even hearing the music of !!!, I liked them, mainly because their name was inspired by the subtitles of the Bushman language in the movie "The Gods Must be Crazy," but also because their latest release, "Myth Takes," sounds like the word mistakes pronounced with a lisp. That and I love exclamation points.

Of course, none of this comes close to addressing the sound of !!!, which is supposedly pronounced "chk chk chk," or, I suppose, with a meaningful expression. Either way, I was expecting to be let down because of my wildly high expectations of an album that had so much working in its favor.

!!! sounds like a musical cocktail with equal parts TV on the Radio and The Rapture. These are two bands that don't readily combine on paper, but !!! successfully twists the substantial strong points of both. The dark, moody funk of TV on the Radio is especially well represented, as are the electronica-inspired dance beats of The Rapture at their best.

"Myth Takes" opens with the title track, and thankfully they don't play too much with the name, which would come off as a little too clever. Nothing extremely interesting occurs within the short timespan of "Myth Takes," but it's an effective opener that serves to pique the listener's interest.

"Must be the Moon" is a much longer and more substantial song, and it turns up the funky bass line as it benignly converses about picking up a girl in a bar and the aftermath. It's subject matter that has been covered ad nauseum, but singer Nic Offer just casually shrugs off the whole experience, giving it a level of originality.

The main thing that !!! does very well is play danceable grooves with just enough weird hooks and melodic tricks to keep it interesting without delving into the esoteric. It's certainly not the most substantial album ever produced, but it is !!!'s most substantial release to date.

The weakest point in "Myth Takes" is easily "Sweet Life," which plays a little like John Frusciante on a particularly bad trip. The only thing that differentiates it from any other Red Hot Chili Peppers song is the failure to mention California over and over. Hopefully, future !!! albums will refrain from such using them as an influence.

So Cal rock or not, !!! plays music that sounds like it was happy once but then took a turn somewhere in its development. As with most bands, it's not for everyone, especially for those who think that dancing and moodiness don't mix. For those out there without such boundaries, !!! is at least an interesting listen and hopefully will continue to find ways to create their dance grooves.