For the Brooklyn-based, dance punk band, Radio 4, New York has always been a good source for inspiration. Look no further than 2002’s “Gotham!” the fuzzy, hip-shaker of an album named after the city that nutured the band’s career. Radio 4 has been around long before that release, and the band was part of the New York scene before it was actually cool to listen to the Strokes and not wash your hair. The band will bring the spirit of “Gotham!” to the Windy City on May 11 and 12, at the Metro, 3730 N. Clark St., with the legendary Gang of Four.

Their most recent release, 2004’s “Stealing Of A Nation” also is focused on New York, but with a different sentiment. Lead singer Anthony Roman, says “Gotham!” is more celebratory (note the exclamation point) while “Stealing Of A Nation” is a commentary on the politics that have emerged since Sept. 11. The title evokes political imagery, but it might be misleading for some, as the material isn’t limited to just that.

“We knew people would take the political aspects of the record most seriously,” Roman says. “I actually didn’t think that was the proper title for the record. I thought that was maybe too heavy handed. But everybody else seemed to think it was a time in America where subtlety was not going to do the job.”

This “time” Roman refers to was before the 2004 presidential election, when musicians came out in droves to effect change in the Oval Office. While the outcome wasn’t what the band hoped for, Roman says some of the songs have more urgency now.

“I actually wrote that record thinking things were going to change, and the fact that they didn’t can lead to quite a bit of frustration,” he says. “But now I think there’s no real choice other than to be as positive as possible because you can’t just continue on being negative. America’s got a lot of good things about it.”

But as Roman points out, not all songs on “Stealing Of A Nation” are strictly political. Common with its more critical theme, the song “Party Crashers” deals with the superficial elevation of the New York scene. Roman says people have begun to exploit the sentiment of the genre with “less than sincere reasons.”

“When the New York, for lack of a better word, ‘scene,’ began as we knew it, it kind of had a freshness to it,” Roman says. “Everyone was naive, just having a good time making music that most people thought no one else would ever hear.”

Roman says New York parallels early-’90s Seattle, when people began commercializing grunge because it was the newest fad. “I think you’re starting to get your Candleboxes,” Roman says of New York.

Despite this quip, one thing Radio 4 has learned is what constitutes “good music” is relative. The band garnered great reviews for “Stealing of a Nation” from several outlets, but the mecca of indie-rock mavens, Pitchforkmedia.com, portrayed Radio 4 as a group mimicking its influences rather than carving out its own identity. Roman says the unfavorable reviews don’t effect him or the band and the members plan to focus on their agenda: to get people to dance.

“The idea in the beginning was … to bring back some physicality to music and to have something to say lyrically,” Roman says. “But to some people you’re not supposed to mix anything serious with dance music because dance is supposed to just be about escape and hedonism.”

Radio 4 fans don’t seem to mind the amalgamation of “serious” subjects and dance, as performances of the album have been met with an enthusiastic response. The band’s fans will be pleased then with its forthcoming album, recorded tentatively this fall, which will be “less electronic” and more representative of its live sound. As one might expect from a group so dedicated to its New York origins, Roman says the majority of the album will be written when he returns to Brooklyn.

“To concentrate, it helps to be home and in an environment that you understand,” he says.

Communication junior Lindsay Sakraida is the PLAY editor. She can be reached at [email protected].