Year of the Scavenger

Instead of charging from their debut album, which the band inaugurates tonight with a 10 p.m. show at the Cactus Club, Year of the Scavenger have decided to give it away for free through their Web site, www.yearofthescavenger.com, then continue recording and releasing as fast as they can. If the band's fast-and-cheap distribution model seems derived from the Dischord Records ethos, it's no coincidence. The band was united in part by its shared love for D.C.-styled post-hardcore, an influence that manifests itself in the group's feral guitars and Litkey's full-lunged bellows, which evoke Ian MacKaye at his most red-faced.