Phoenix Sons – Suburbia 8.1

             

             Phoenix Sons may be the most addictive thing I’ve heard from HolyPageRecords. Written by Ian Jamison and Jayson Cappo, it is really engrossing. You’ll need to get through the huge dollops of humor thrown onto here. In their little blurb, they talk about classically trained musicians exploring pop music. No, that’s not entirely correct. Think instead of the most hot and bothered forms of pop.

                “From Flagstaff” sounds like a parody of 70s progressive rock and the overly ridiculousness of dramatic singing. Somehow, by it possessing some unfathomable amount of irony, it manages to be somewhat endearing. They are fairly good musicians, and little flourishes here and there remind you these are two people who know their goal.

                By far the best song is “Suburbia”.  It starts out with “Hey mom can I borrow the car” as a thumping beat begins. Words fail me in describing in what’s going on here. The beginning reminds me of Electric Light Orchestra left out in the hot Arizona sun with its mind fried, unable to make sense of anything going on. Beats so loud and absurd are layered on top. Violins come into the chaos and slowly things reach a noisy crescendo. Eventually things only to build up again into a sweeping set of chords as piano and violins end it. Try as you might, it is pretty hard to extract this out of your head. It’s something that’s just has so many things going on you’ll fail to make sense out of it. While you could see it as stupid, it’s a surprisingly inventive song.

                “The Top” is the weak point on this EP for me at least. “Him & Her” is the sobering end to this song. Devoid of a lot of the noisier aspects we saw earlier on the record, it shows they can write a genuine, touching song besides the lurching madness displayed on most of the EP. At moments it sounds like a long lost Ben Folds song. Yeah, it is that strange.

                Obviously this isn’t everyone’s taste. Veering around all sorts of genres, it can be a lot to understand in only 16 minutes. It possesses a charming quality underneath all the silliness which allows it to rise above being merely a joke.

If the above intrigued you, I’d recommend downloading it for free right here.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Clap Your Hands Say Yeah 7.6

I know where I was when I first heard this. I sat in my friend’s anorexic-looking white Volvo sedan from the early 90s. As the music played, we all felt happy and content listening to the hip stuff while non-descript shopping malls passed us by. We were going to the beach to walk around aimlessly for a few hours.

The album begins with “The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth”. What comes before isn’t necessarily bad, but things really take off with this song. Part of me wonders why a band would get energized right in the middle of things, but that’s beside the point. Hearing the vocalist for the first time, he sounds like an incoherent drunk. Upon further listens (which you’ll do, since it is a habit-forming song) you’ll realize he’s singing in English.

After that song, everything in the album makes sense. “Heavy Metal” which is more energetic power-pop than anything else, and the bittersweet song “Home on Ice” are probably my other favorites on here. These three songs have the expansive feel that they had been trying for with most of the album.

Unfortunately, the album they had following this lacked the same charisma. Perhaps this band was meant to exist in 2005 and after that it just missed the mark. Indie rock moved away from this kind of emotional display after this, which is a bit sad. Listening to it a half-decade later, I remember why I liked it and that reason hasn’t changed.