Franz Ferdinand were a buzz, promising a stylish show and tight songs. FF are hyped as having an arty, dancy edge combined with precise music that hammers away into an infectious shake. And Nick McCarthy certainly has the most aggressive control over his guitar of anyone out there, slashing repetitively across it as he slices out the rythmn.
 
It's part of the larger genre that has in the last couple years pushed itself into the mainstream, a direct response to the '90's American grunge and British rock bloat, and maybe to a lesser degree influenced by the exactitude of electronica. It's minimalism, that ranges from the Strokes garage formalism to the White Stripes stripped-down line-up.
 

And as far as Rock goes, its probably its new face. The face may always be changing, as some faces take on a life of their own: Punk was the fresh face of the '70's, but now it's just Punk, like Funk or Heavey Metal or Alt Country. Others just fade in the onward stream of stylistic adjustments.
 
While Basement Jacks is testing the boundaries of that electronic technology's possibilities and electronica cements its jam band stage, Jam is just Jam. And for Rock that leaves the range of Indie Rock to Indie Pop to shoulder the mantle.So Rock is reclaiming its formal restraint, uniting '80's electro minimalism and Velvet Underground's barebones.