I’ve been wanting to write about this album for awhile now but haven’t given it the fullblown review it deserves. The reason is one of the ones I expressed earlier today: I don’t have a handle on it as an album, but rather, as a load of tracks. But I’ve lived with it so long I believe I got a finally got it together.
The secret here is a song like “Little Wolf” where Josh Lejoie let’s out his inner Shakira and the other two musicians howl in the background against an acoustic backdrop.. I thought it was punk or post punk or something like that. It’s art rock, only without the pretension, only young, it’s the howl of hormones. But yeah from an artistic by which I mean a transmogrified sound sense.
The secret here is a song like “Little Wolf” where Josh Lejoie let’s out his inner Shakira and the other two musicians howl in the background against an acoustic backdrop.. I thought it was punk or post punk or something like that. It’s art rock, only without the pretension, only young, it’s the howl of hormones. But yeah from an artistic by which I mean a transmogrified sound sense.
Makes sense since the drummer is an artist who painted the great Spider Bags last album cover.
“I know a girl who makes me howl” the guy sings and the line is so cool it makes we wanna smile at its smartness.
Like every other song here. In Chris Parker’s excellent review in IndyWeek last June he sees the album as a form shifter. Me? I’m not so sure. Maybe I’ve lived with it too long to hear a band that will record a crash on the drums and sing “That just happened” are playing Ono-y “be here now” avant-rock games with you and when you have a singer that sounds like Richard Hell and a band that makes one fuck of a whale for a three piece: it’s more like installation art: it coheses in your brain as one, very “You Are Here”.
The best moments on an album with out a slack moment I’ve written about umpteen times. . “The Ballad Of Brandgelina” -a pop punk blast of fresh air and “Mkele Mbembe” a song so strong it pulsates and it drones at the same time. It’s like Velvet Undreground with strange drum parts -it sounds like Maureen Tucker.
One complaint -will new bands make words easier for me to spell so I don’t have to constantly double check. Pretzelvania is a bitch to get right!!! But worth the effort -the album is a youthful, arty, NY punky, blast of energy. Paul Finn of Odessa records sent me Americans In France a coupla months ago but I bought it again on itunes anyway. If I owe anybody ten bucks it’s these guys.