Record Label: S/R
Genre: Dance Punk/Garage
Band Link: link
Buy on Amazon.com link

Coincidentally, this CD crossed my desk the day of Kurt Vonnegut’s passing (“so it goes” is a recurrent phrase in Slaughterhouse 5). I’m always skeptical of bands whose names are literary references, and was very worried of a crappy band ruining the good name of Mr. Vonnegut, a hero of mine. Thus, the CD sat around for weeks. So it goes.

Unfortunately for me and my desire to see literary bands fail, these guys are actually good. No, they’re not math rock (my original assumption based on the band name and album title), but a modern new wavey garage band. They’re cut from the same dancerock cloth as Franz Ferdinand but then dyed in 80s new wave and casio pop.

Sure, that description sounds trendy, and maybe these guys are, but for the most part they avoid being a complete Franz Ferdinand clone or having swaggering hipsterish vocals (with the exception of the distorted vox on “Animal Show” a la exactly like the Strokes). The band is obviously not just biting off contemporaries, but are genuine fans of the Clash and Public Image Ltd., and it comes through (“Ready, Control”, “Defcon One”). The vocals are clean and earnest and the band’s use of Casio effects is a great addition (and they mercifully show restraint in not overdoing them – check out the great “Get On With It” and “Robots Are Dead”).

The band can write and play energetic dance-y tunes that have all the toe-tapping fun of those hipster bands without the skinny-tie pretentiousness and heroin chic. There are a couple of misses where they come perilously close to Franz country, and they’re not going to win any points for originality. But they come through where it matters – they sound good and they’re fun to listen to. So it goes.

Bottom Line: Don’t dismiss them as a Franz Ferdinand clone, though they kinda are.
Notable Tracks: Get On With It, No Guns No Love, Popaganda, Robots Are Dead
Overall Rating: