Groundskeeper Willie: music pioneer.

We [are] living in the 21st century, doing something mean to it. Sure, we enjoy the benefits of modern technology like Skype, moon shoes, and laser hair removal, but where’s the moon colony? The flying car? Hell, we’ll settle for mercury-less tuna. At least DCs Black Cat caught a glimpse the music of tomorrow at Monday’s El Ten Eleven/Dosh instrumental extravaganza . But, we may still have to wait a few more years for worthwhile holograms.

Dosh, born Martin Luther King Chavez Dosh, is a master beat butcher and inspired tailor of live-samples, chopping and looping his way to your local cantina. Based in the Twin Cities, Dosh tours with his entire basement studio, cramming his van full of mixing boards, looping stations, a Fender Rhodes, and a drum kit. His live shows are proof of musical progress, showcasing how far one-man bands have come since Dick Van Dyke in Marry Poppins. Most jams start the same way, with a steady yet off kilter rhythm laying the foundation for rich soundscapes to build to infinity, then let you down easy. There are more dreamy layers in seven minutes of  ”If You Want To, You Have To” than in all 150 minutes of Inception.

Being a member of San Francisco’s elusive anticon. collective, Dosh has become a household name, granted only if your house talks a lot about avant-garde hip hop. Dosh’s looping and live-sampling techniques made him an excellent fit on Andrew Bird’s Armchair Apocrphya, and on subsequent Birdman tours. Armchair’s “Simple X” was lifted directly from Dosh’s “Simple Exercises”, the opening track on 2004′s Pure Trash.

After gushing through Dosh’s warm, mind-expanding set, the FC was worried LA’s El Ten Eleven may be too cumbersome a band at two members. Luckily, this was not the case.

Equipped with a pristine 1977 Carvin bass and six-string double-neck guitar, extensive pedal boards, a minimal drum set, unspeakable technical prowess, and a whole lot of imagination, El Ten Eleven’s dance-rock drills right into your brain, throwing off your internal clock. El Ten Eleven form a very welcome bridge between the groovy, yet often unsatisfying Ratatat and the brash Death From Above 1979, creating a sound that equally stimulates your percolating mind as well as your happy feet.

Guitarist, bassist, pedal jumper, master craftsman Kristian Dunn has a knack for multi-tasking: on stage he can be seen simultaneously tapping the six-string, thumping the bass, and shifting and recording sounds. Listen to the layers of tracks on their cover of Joy Division‘s “Disorder“, which was a major highlight of the night.

Are these resourceful maestros proof of changing tides? Are the days of bloated triple-axe attacks over, leaving us with just one man, recording techniques, and his wits? If they all can be like Dosh and El Ten Eleven, that sounds like a pretty great future. The hoverboard can wait.

Dosh and El Ten Eleven are just beginning their 27 -show tour, and will be at The Knitting Factory on 9/16, and The Mercury Lounge 9/18. All other dates can be found here. Check out Dosh’s 2010 release Tommy, and El Ten Eleven’s upcoming It’s Still Like a Secret.