Can't Stop Spinning: Skeleton by Abe Vigoda

Since it came in to my possession 36 hours ago, this is about the only thing I listened to. I took a break to check out that new record from Women and then Nouns by No Age, since they're touring with them and have been semi-lumped in to that whole, erm, noise scene. My problem is I don't think they belong - Abe Vigoda is almost too poppy for that whole lumping of a genre, or better yet, the one's who would best be fit to really become a forerunner, even though people think that Nouns is just priceless (I kinda beg to differ).

Skeleton starts off with drum fills abound and bright guitars. "Dead City/Waste Wilderness" borders the afro beat that Talking Heads pioneered on Remain In Light and Vampire Weekend hone today, save for the fact that, y'know, it's dirty. It's muddled, befuddled, the vocals are buried deep in the mix that Michael Stipe of the Fables era would be astonished. All but :45 seconds it makes that shift, maybe in to the "Waste" portion of the song, melodies and beats repeat with a cowbell that's so doused in reverb that you think it might be an empty can or spokes on a bike. It slides conveniently in to "Bear Face" which then goes right in to "Lantern Lights" two minutes later with it's declaration of the line 'Take one leaf, take two' before harmonies swell below. The only time they could even be remotely involved in this noise scene comes with "Whatever Forever" which uses its 42 seconds of existence to hum and explode like "Freezer Burn" would if Aphex Twin covered it. Skipping ahead to the end, the title track is total schizo - drumsticks click, we are to feel the bridge break, and when it breaks down out in to what would be a chorus, the vocals and words have never been more clear. "Don't break me out! Don't break me out!" is declared before the band has a minor thrash and breaks in to the chorus again and again and again. When all is said and done, the 14 songs that take up all of 32 minutes have left me in total m = b mode. This record is not leaving my ears anytime soon.

Their MySpace declares they are of a genre known as Tropical and Regional Mexican; a YouTube performance dubbed them Tropicali since they reside in LA and are tropical at times. When I finally stumbled upon their bio, Skeleton is labeled as a punked out Graceland (guess I wasn't so far off since all the cool hipster kids listen to that record all the time now for some reason). Their hollow yet full sounding jams can be best described by our own Jose Fritz as listening to the band do their soundcheck while waiting in line outside. More disjointed that Die Princess Die, more herky jerky than The Joggers have been at times, this band is destined to be something - that is - if they aren't already.

Skeleton is out July 8th on PostPresentMedium.

Download: "Skeleton" [mp3] // [Buy Here]