"It's the eighties, do a lot of coke and vote for Ronald Reagan!"
Japanther plays the Go-Gos through a lot of distortion and random samples. They play Bananarama! And it's so much fun I can hardly stand it. It's fun and bratty, and the melodies are like pop-punk fun stripped of its overproduction and self-importance. It's kids playing for kids with short attention spans and no use for a slick presentation. I'm all for it. I hope the lofts and basements they play are full of young souls that love punk rock, but don't wanna sit through another whiny-emo-pick-your-crescendo band.
As a big fan of Dump The Body in Rikki Lake, though, I can't help but be a little disappointed. Perhaps the lack of innovation so evident on this new Japanther album has something to do with the release having been recorded on the road. "Pacific NW" is a twist since new member Claudia Meza sings on it. But I can't shrug my shoulders and "eh" enough about this new development. She sings way too much like early Sleater-Kinney and it mucks up Japanther's singular nature for a song that is slight and unmoving. Luckily, the song is followed by that famous Princess Bride line that Inigo Montoya delivers to the six-fingered man. After which a very typical Japanther ditty ensues. While it's not a stand-out, you've got some more fist-pumping, pogo-happy action to flesh out the record.
You know there's trouble when the samples the band uses outshine the songs, and that's unfortunately what happens with Master of Pigeons. What was innately exciting on the last LP (singing through a toy telephone, crankin up crappy keyboard vamps) has stagnated somewhat here. "Satie" comes close to being notable. Its melancholic melody is placed in front of the careening drumbeat for something like a muffled punk extension of the instrumental bridge of Ah-Ha's "Take On Me." There's another kind of stand-out, in the loping acoustic ballad that follows. It's a stand-out in that it's the suckiest song the band has ever recorded. The drawling drawling blues bullshit on display is unlike them and tempts me to dismiss them.
But I won't. Just like Leather Wings was a dodgy precursor to the more fleshed-out Dump The Body, I'm hoping Master of Pigeons is just a suspect blooper-reel (with some alright tunes that could be re-worked later into something better) till the next album. It seems the group is very aloof about recording standards, and that's exciting. Non-professionalism in punk is not just potent, but absolutely necessary -- especially nowadays. But I'm convinced they can do better than this.
1. Swearing
2. 1-10
3. Midtown
4. Divorce
5. Happiness
6. Gas Station
7. Summer Hills
8. Pacific NW
9. Last Chance to Dance
10. Tourist
11. Evil Earth
12. Satie
13. Change Your Life
14. Stabby
15. Mornings
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