Wallpaper
(K Records)
Imagine indie kids raised on the best of K Records and Jonathan Richman discovering Nuggets, Bruce Springsteen's The River and maybe the Pixies on a weekend road trip to some really cool amusement park and then trying to process it all in the course of a single recording session when they got back home. That may not be what happened here. But chances are, it would have sounded pretty much the same.
There's a primitive "Hey, I know, let's start a band" appeal to damn near every track, from the twitchy stops and starts of the infectious "Rock Collage" to the "Modern Lovers rock the sock hop" charms of the semi-explosive "Total Explosion." Other highlights range from "Solar Panel Sleeve," which sounds like it may well have started with someone suggesting, "Well, what if the Troggs had sounded more like Dylan?" to the sputtering rock and roll reference points that make "Pop Rocket" such a smile. You've got to love a song where Kurt Cobain turns up in someone's dream just to say "You've got holes in your jeans." They sign off with a wistful invitation to "Come to my rock and roll world." And it should be pretty clear by then that any world these guys would call their own is a rock and roll world.
Standout Tracks: "Total Explosion," "Rock and Roll World" A. WATT
