Joining a growing Midwestern tradition of infusing otherwise tried-and-true genres with an indie-electro sensibility, Minneapolis' Ruby Isle, who play the Cactus Club tonight at 9 p.m., utilize particularly novel source material: classic rock, the unspoken scourge of indie-rock circles. Lending additional strangeness to Ruby Isle's incongruous mash-up is a guest appearance on the band's debut album from flash-in-the-pan YouTube royalty Tay Zonday, a fellow Minnesotan. While it remains to be seen if such a bizarre team-up will curse Ruby Isle with a similar 15-minutes-of-fame kiss of death, the band's combination of clear, vintage-guitar grinds and compulsively catchy dance-synth bloops goes down easy. Plus, there's no denying that the group's singer—Mark Mallman, who doubles as a glam-rock solo artist—knows how to turn a hook.
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