Saturday, December 10, 2005

Rocking OUT! I'm just digging the new Go! Team record like crazy.  I love the feel of this record - it's loud, crazy, exuberant, and you just want to jump up and down when you hear music like this.  The tambourine and wild-eyed horn section on "Junior Kickstart," the playground chant of "We Just Won't Be Defeated," the kooky cut-and-paste boogie of "Bottle Rocket," all of it.  It's wild, silly fun.   The drums are just joyous.  The horns are over the top and crazy. The vocals all seem like playground taunts or cheerleaders with bad attitudes.  (Apparently, there's samples aplenty here, but there's lots of live music, too, and it's hard to separate one from the other.)  And I don't think there's any grand message behind these songs - I can't even make out the lyrics most of the time.  But it's fun and silly music, and that's all you need sometimes, right?   They remind me of the jubilantly childlike debut record by Call and Response.  Call and Response was more bubblegummy, though - this has scratching and weird samples and a few raps here and there.  And beats. Oh, man, the drums!  I'm listening to "Bottle Rocket" right now, and the drums are pushed way up front.  It sounds like two drummers playing in almost-but-not-quite time with each other.  Oddly, the drum style sounds like marching band drumming, especially the riffs on "Ladyflash."  (Do I hear a glockenspiel?)     Pitchfork tried to get all analytical and say that these guys were hearkening back to the theme songs of early '80s tv.  I don't know about all that, but this is the perfect soundtrack to a movie that doesn't exist yet.   Go get this album now.  If you're cheap, get "Bottle Rocket," "Junior Kickstart," "Ladyflash" and, oh, "The Power is On," which thumps like the best tracks by Gorillaz or Timbaland or maybe both put together.  And if you're really cheap, or if you just want to hear these cats live, go to KEXP's website to hear their live performance.  Wowee wow wow wow.  P.S.  Not only is the album fun, but it's bringing out the best in critics trying to explain the sound.  A sampling: The album-opening "Panther Dash" begins in noise that gives way to clacking drumsticks, a surf guitar, a hopscotch-style count-off, and a winsome Midnight Cowboy-inspired harmonica part, then squeals out into noise again...A challenge to even the most hardened depressive, Thunder, Lightning, Strike finds one way after another to shake new pleasures out of old material.  (The Onion A.V. Club)   It's pin the tail on the donkey where everywhere you stick the pin gets you a prize. The Go! Team is widescreen in a pan-and-scan world, a sparkling rejoinder to purists and spoilsports everywhere and more fun than recess on the last day of school. Cinematic, fantastic, and essential to all who want their music larger than life and rambunctious, Thunder, Lightning, Strike is the kind of record that makes you glad to be alive. What could be better than that? (Allmusic.com)   Thunder, Lightning, Strike is for people who love music that hits them over the head with the sheer enjoyment of the human ability to rock.  (Prefix Magazine) It's all dusky reds and yellows, shag-headed battle royales, exploding tanks, and getting up the next day to relive it on the playground.  ( Pitchfork Media.  Blogger's note:  Um, okay, but what have you been smoking?)   ...the party-ready rhythm and summer's day melodies rise above the ruckus. This is probably how infants hear music, overwhelmed by sensation and oblivious to language.  (PopMatters) 7:45:37 AM    Speak up!  []