"Le Loup" means "the wolf" in French. Sam Simkoff, frontman of the D.C.-based indie pop quintet that bears the appellation, claims he chose it to riff on all the other indie groups out there with the word "Wolf" in their names, self-consciously ratcheting up the pretentiousness meter by translating it into another tongue. It's a great joke that shows Simkoff has a keen eye for hipster trends, and his band's music is likewise plugged in to the zeitgeist. In interviews, when asked to tick off influences, Simkoff and his bandmates don't reach for ultra-obscure 1960s cult artists or hyper-ironic mainstream touchstones, but freely list folks like Animal Collective, Sufjan Stevens, and Grizzly Bear. In contrast, for instance, to the glo-fi thing that has seemed to burble up fairly organically this year from various and sundry quarters, Le Loup's music feels like a direct reaction to what indie-rock's A-List has been cooking up over the past couple of years.