Listening to “No City Fun” is more than just great music, it’s a blurry and surreal expedition.

From beginning to end, each song is driven by a relatively simple string pattern, and in the background a country guitar reveals itself and adds to the overall dreary mood.

A lot of bands try to tackle this feat, but only a few succeed with precise songwriting. American Mars manages to present its fresh sound quite effectively.

Songs like the title track and “Capitalist Riot” don’t vary too differently from one another, but the storytelling helps each song develop.

“Loneliness is Murder” has melodies and lyrics that would put tears in the eyes of The Cure’s Robert Smith, while “Cold War” has Joy Division status.

The “If Monday Were Mine” has reaps influence from the likes of Bob Dylan - it’s that good.

These guys manage to tackle the theme of postgrunge nicely, but the repeated theme of the same use of instruments gets irritating, such as the slide guitar that dwindles in the background of every song.

The band mixes the storytelling of Tim Buckley with the delivery of Tom Petty, Pete Yorn or David Bowie, but throws in some modern spacy special effects a la Radiohead.

A lot of these tracks are similar to modern Frank Black, but with an added Southern rock appeal - not bad for a Detroit rock band.

American Mars will perform tonight at Mac’s Bar, 2700 E. Michigan Ave. For those 21 and over, the show starts at 10:00 p.m. For more information, including cover, call Mac’s Bar at (517)484-6795.

For more information on American Mars, visit www.americanmars.com.