The Mint Chicks :: Crazy? Yes. Dumb? No!

Dancey? Yes. Pop? No!

The Mint Chicks have made a slight modification to their sound with this 2007 release. While not far from their signature disjointed rhythms and asymetric noise rock of Octagon!Octagon!Octagon!, Crazy? Yes. Dumb? No! provides listeners with something to look forward to: a dance-able refrain. Not to fault the robotic pulses and surging violence of previous albums--one would only have to see the Mint Chicks play one of Wellington's small clubs to understand they give everything for their audience--but to be able to boogie to a Mint Chicks song is a wonderful feeling.

So have the Mint Chicks released a pop album? Absolutely not. Listening to CYDN makes one feel like the passenger in a prop plane caught in a tailspin. One moment there is chaos, and the whole world outside is a tumbling mess of blue and brown. Then suddenly it's clear. The pilot looks at you and grins, his gold teeth catching the sun. For a moment it all makes sense. . . for a moment.

The album begins very much on par with the band's earlier works. The lead track, Occam's Razor surges to life in typical MC form. Yet by the second track, there are signs of a change. While the song, This is Your Last Chance to Be Famous My Love, begins with a storm of drums and guitar, it quickly--and suddenly, which is how the Mint Chicks like to move--shifts time. The rest of the album plays at a similar pace.

Many have said that if you don't like the Mint Chicks the first time you hear them, you never will. If this is true, we believe that Crazy? Yes. Dumb? No! should be the album you hear first. And if the title track doesn't become your summer anthem, then you need to have your iPod confiscated. Seriously. No, seriously. We're not kidding. Hand it over.

Artist: The Mint Chicks

Album: Crazy? Yes. Dumb? No!

Verdict: Recommend to fans and non fans alike

Comments

Lucero Video for "Darken My Door"

Darken My Door from Lucero on Vimeo . It's good to see that a serious band doesn't have to take itself seriously. Even better when a band's fans don't take them too seriously. "Darken My Door" off of Lucero's latest album, 1372 Overton Park , is a song about losing stuff--girlfriend, money, dignity. In fact, a lot of Lucero's songs are like that, but I'm not getting into that now. I'm talking about the video, which has so much to love. Obviously, I love the fact director Alex Mecum has used a puppet as the protagonist. But it's what the puppet does that makes this video so much fun. Puppet eating chili dogs, puppet drinking whiskey, puppet giving blow jobs . . . Hell, there's even puppet vomit! It's ridiculous, yes, but also tragic. By the end of the video, if you don't feel a little sorry for the scruffy faced whore puppet, then you have no soul. Here's a little more about the videos for Lucero's new album: To promot

Okkervil River, Wellington, New Zealand :: Live Music Review

There are energetic drummers, and then there is Travis Nelson. Truly, he is 'Animal.' Okkervil River albums have so much personality, the songs themselves become characters: players, people in the guise of animals or gods (and who can tell the difference sometimes?). And like watching a melodrama, we are witness to emotions that heave and plummet with frightening force. The songs can be drunken youth: the rotund boots on their feet knocking wildly on every surface. Or they can be villainous and smart, full of smiles and wishing-you-well up to the second they thrust the dagger into your belly. Pitched, lust-crazed, calculated: that is one half of an Okkervil album. The other emotion is equally intense in its thick, slow agony: the eternity it takes to remove the knife, knowing you have it all to do over. And so it goes: soaring, drunk, angry, knife, stab, agony, pull-it-out-and-let's-do-it-again. At the San Fransisco Bathhouse in Wellington, New Zealand, on a crisp early a

Best Music of 2008 [Last.FM gobbles our scrobbles]

Internet radio / social network / music discover tool Last.FM has released its Best of 2008 list. There are going to be dozens of "best" lists coming out in the next few weeks, but this one should command your attention. The list is not based on radio play, and it is not based on best selling albums. It is based on the number of times we (that's the royal "we" in all it's regal garb) have played tracks from our iTunes, iPods, Songbirds, or any other player that allows scrobbling. It is based on what we wanted to hear. We pressed play. We made the playlists. The only fault I can find lies in the Top 10 Tracks, which basically MGMT and Colplay. But that's what you get with raw data. To me, the Artists list is the most compelling. You will find no Kanye West on this list; no Britney and no Janet. You will only find the artists played incessantly and obsessively.

Duck & Cover :: Indie rock music writing from Arcade Fire to the Zygotic Minci

Search This Blog