First off, Daniel Kessler, Carlos Dengler, Paul Banks, and Sam Fogarino don't really sound that much like Joy Division. Oh, sure, the classic post punk minimalist elements are all in tact. But where Joy Division, those Mancunian founders of gloom rock and co-founders (with Bauhuas) of goth, preached doom and destruction and the very fall of mankind itself, Interpol examines more mundane subjects. That Interpol frames those mundane subjects in dizzying atmospheric songs that are unvaryingly catchy and memorable separates the new boys from "Here are the Young Men"-hell.
For all the slobbering, love-struck scribes who are breathlessly comparing Interpol with New Order's old modus operandi, there are several bands who better describe Interpol's influences.
Yo La Tengo springs to mind; Interpol's Matador Records stablemates know from a good groove, and aren't afraid to use it - especially when using it means riding a guitar riff up into the stratosphere until it's etched in the listener's brain like some kind of feverish sex-dream. Like Ira Kaplan's Tengo crew, Interpol would rather create lush atmospherics than mope around. Songs like "Untitled," from 2002's brilliant Turn On the Bright Lights illustrate Interpol's groove abilities to the fullest.
Another, even better comparison is that of Interpol to Luna, the little-noticed post Galaxy 500 project of fellow NYC native Dean Wareham. Listen to Interpol's latest LP, Antics. Then throw on Luna's 1995 gem, Penthouse. The striking similarities between those two albums, with their blissed-out riff-soaked motifs, show that both bands are more influenced by Television's proto-punk guitar rock than by Ian Curtis' death rattle. (Indeed, TV's Tom Verlaine solos on Penthouse's "23 minutes in Brussels," guitar work that is closely echoed in Antic's "Public Pervert.")
Finally, there is that question of the mundane lyrics. Interpol's ability to infuse the everyday-sleeping on different couches, say, or a refusal to examine a tattered relationship-separates the upstart band from Joy Division's cataclysmic bluster.
When all is said and done, Interpol may be best recognized not for their ability to imitate any particular band, but for their anachronistic but nonetheless effective efforts at reviving the lesser known post-punk quality of atmospherics.
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