For the synthesizer set, 2007 was a banner year. Its most public figure, Dan Deacon, and the rest of the Baltimore art and music community heralded in a new age of arty, dance-fused pop music that, guided by a DIY manifesto, replaced irony and posture with earnestness and fun. The largely instrumental music might have been slightly opaque, its melodic core obscured by jittery arrangements and harsh analog-synth sounds, but the movement's live shows were all-inclusive communal affairs, with bands setting up on the floors of all-ages venues amidst crowds of sweaty fans.

In that mix, Jason Temple and Brian Esser, also known as Florida duo Yip-Yip, were as active as any, playing 100 shows over three tours in 75 cities, including a Bug Jar gig a year ago with fierce rock band Health. The end of 2007 also saw the release of the band's album "Two Kings Of The Same Kingdom," a raucous 25-minute collection of melodic, disjointed synth-pop packaged with a DVD of videos self-filmed by the band.

Onstage, Yip-Yip don identical black-and-white checkered costumes, and drape a similarly checkered backdrop behind them. The visually arresting pattern covers their instruments and nearly every inch of the stage. "We understand that we're an instrumental band and we have to do everything that we can to make the show really interesting and win people over," says Esser. "There's a kind of mysterious vibe to it."

The evolution of Yip-Yip's costumes - from furry white snow monsters to the two-tone-spacemen of today - mirrors the duo's changing music (and the fact that hundreds of shows can put quite the strain, and stain, on white fabric). Initially just synthesizers and samplers, Yip-Yip has experimented with its live shows, which now feature a saxophone, cymbals, and other live-music effects, all of which hint at a new, more melodically mature direction as the band writes the material for a new record due tentatively in fall 2009.

Esser describes one pivotal moment that occurred late 2007, working out a cover of Nirvana's "Very Ape." The band, which itself don't use vocals, initially attempted to orchestrate only the instrumental parts of the song, and the effort fell flat. "Jason got the saxophone out and played the vocal melody, and it was like this huge moment, for me at least," says Esser. "The way that the vocals that he wrote cross over with the rest of the music and carry over in certain parts really opened my eyes."

Yip-Yip has always straddled the line between electronic and rock, touring most recently with avant-metal band Gengis Tron, and hitting Europe next month with noise rockers An Albatross.

"We've been kind of strangely accepted into that scene, and we didn't necessarily think that we would just fit in like that. But we've met a lot of bands and they've been really cool with us," says Temple. "I think there's a mutual appreciation. Usually in those bands there's some a form of experimentation or just weird songwriting or sounds."

The band, on and off stage, empathizes with and reaches out to rock audiences. "I could watch a guy shred on a guitar all night and be amazed, but there's really only a couple people on synthesizer where I've been, like, 'Wow,'" says Esser.

The easiest reference point to Yip-Yip's synth sound is one that they've heard a lot: video game music. The connection is unintended, says the band. "Never were we trying to make video game music," says Esser. "We don't reject it, but it's definitely not intentional. Our biggest influence at the beginning was Devo. That helped put in our brain that a band should be more than just music, with visuals and video and art."

In that vein, the band designs (and usually makes) all of its own merchandise, from CD covers to a zine that came paired with the "Candy Dinner" single to black-and-white t-shirts, bundled with a set of neon paint markers for the wearer to color in herself. Esser says that the sheer coolness of Devo's absurd merch has been an inspiration. "I was always big into art. If I hear a band and they're good and they have an art side, there's just more to it. It's like finding a new favorite band and artist," says Esser.

Even with Yip-Yip's frequent touring, its members continue to work, when home, around their base of Winter Park, Florida. For both, the idea of turning Yip-Yip into a business doesn't have much appeal.

"We don't want to make Yip-Yip such a ridiculous money stress, begging people to buy our stuff constantly just to be able to pay rent," says Esser.

For its forthcoming album, the band is more focused on writing songs to suit itself than trying to score a breakthrough hit. "Maybe not a lot of people will like it, but at least it'll be in its own little territory, and we'll have achieved our own little musical niche in the music world," Esser says. "Which seems like a really hard thing to do."

Yip-Yip

w/Big Digits, Bev Beverly, Bob E Kocktapus & DJ Kribs

Bug Jar, 219 Monroe Ave.

Saturday, November 1

10 p.m. | $6-$10 | 454-2966, bugjar.com