Superlatives: Biggest weirdo (Kristy Geschwandtner), most likely to quit school (Steve Touchton)

Clubs: Cooking, Drama, Cooking up Drama

Quote: "Work hard and stay in school – no, psych!"

There's a certain exquisite irony to the fact that the couple who best embody the unique, upbeat, and ever so twisted esprit de corps of the class of 2004 never quite got around to graduating from high school. Warbler's musical overachievers – Steve Touchton holds down XBXRX and Snowsuit, Kristy Geschwandtner performs as Lil' Pocketknife, and both play in KIT – are a walking, talking, rampaging advertisement for the sweet life as a dropout.

"If I could do high school over again, I'd take auto repair or woodshop or something that's useful," Touchton drawls before an Edinburgh Castle Pub show. "Something I'd actually be able to use, rather than history, the biggest waste of time."

It's easy to believe history is simply a nagging triviality for Warbler. The blues, hooks, and traditional song structure are jettisoned in favor of shouted exhortations and blasts of noise. As music makers and performers, Touchton and Geschwandtner haven't succumbed to the stereotypical ills that supposedly fill the dropout lifestyle – teen pregnancy, heavy drinking, dangerous levels of fast-food consumption, innumerable hours in front of Judge Judy. This pair are far from complacent: in performance, they regularly shatter the fourth wall, jumping into the crowd, megaphones in hand, shouting over the distorted, buzzing primal beats emanating from Touchton's laptop, and riling up the audience with a mixture of peacemaking entreaties to "not argue," "get along," and "let it go" and more rabble-rousing reminders to "set those books on fire," "do what you love," and "live your dream." The rhythms are frenetic, the melodies nonexistent, the head-banging possibilities seemingly endless. Maybe even priceless – once you enter the force field of positive energy generated by the pair, decked out in matching primary-color sweaters and looking like an anarchic, noise-wave pep squad from an alternate universe. Tony Robbins, sorta – on crack-free crack.

"I'd rather be with the crowd than on the stage. If you're up there, you just can't feel things," Geschwandtner explains, describing the Warbler live experience. "You feed off of other people, and they feed off you."

Sounds like an orgy of energetic cannibalism, a thought that gets a hoot out of Geschwandtner. Touchton is more serious about his inspirational duties. "I think it comes back to the whole thing of wanting listeners to be totally psyched on something, even for a brief moment, and for them to maybe be inspired to do something that would make somebody else psyched. And then to have this big chain of people who are amped up on something." In that sense, perhaps Warbler can be seen less as punky cheerleaders or indie-rock aerobic instructors, than as noise mediums with a secular tent show, beat-crunching power brokers at a temple of anticommerce.

The project began one night in late 2003 when Touchton and Geschwandtner were promised spots on a guest list at a fairly pricey Curse of the Birthmark show; their names were never called in. So instead of throwing a tantrum at the door and breaking barware, the pair chose productivity and consoled themselves by writing songs. Their first friendly assault on a live audience followed in February, and now their self-titled debut CD – all of 14 songs, clocking in at 17 minutes in short, sharp furious bursts of sincerity and distortion – has been released by Doggpony Records.

Hell, it beats sitting home collecting dust. "The alternative would be to just watch more DVDs or something," Touchton says. (Chun)

For more information on Warbler, go to www.experimentaldental.com/warbler.