Mole City

FANTASTIC. From Portland, Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss (Sleater Kinney)'s [they were married until 1995] band with their eighth album in 20 years... scattershot (in a good way)-- every track sounds different. Noise/garage/countryrock/rock/folk/post-punk... it's a weird stew of it all. (It's his singing throughout, unless you see SHE SINGS)

A weird mix of stuff, you might want to sample it for yourself. But highly recommended. 2, 10, 13, 17 are the tops. FCC on 11.

1 (0:15) * Just a brief organ riff
2 (3:33) ****** Fuzzy, fuzzy guitar... so goddamned fuzzy. Midtempo, fun, singsongey. Great hooks, great wall of fuzz. Fade-out into harsh noise.
3 (3:07) *** Snotty, with piano chugging midway thru, into fun pop ballad, finally into weird chorus-line excess.
4 (3:02) *** uptempo chugging with country-rockish guitars, but shaggy garagey vox and atmosphere. Sudden collapse.
5 (1:05) * Spacey, bubbly, thereminny sounds for a minute.
6 (3:13) **** Mopey, sad, ominous Casio... "dum dum da dum" You like sad songs? Give this one a go.
7 (2:54) **** Thumping rocker, mid'60s Dylan (Buick 6ish) in tone... honkytonk piano, nice background chorus.... then noisy guitar jam. Sudden end.
8 (3:12) ** Heavy rocker, with weird spacey sound in a few places.
9 (2:04) *** SHE SINGS. Sweet folk song, with slightly fuzzy electric guitar. Think Elizabeth Cotten.
10 (4:35) **** Insistent post-punky piano and drums, lazy vox, with hi-pitched "head shrinker" backup vox, halfway thru, sweet and distorted guitars noodle for a while.
11 (3:24) (FCC: "fucking around") *** Shaggy country-western "I'll tear out your tongue..." SHE and he harmonize in chorus.
12 (3:28) * Dense piano rocker, not extremely memorable
13 (3:59) **** Noisy plinky space sounds, over meandering guitar solo. Heavy reverb on his vox (pained), slowish folky. Then vox is louder, fuzzier, and backup sweet vox.
14 (0:33) * Harshish noise, short.
15 (2:07) ** Punky guitar, uptempo and crazed...
16 (1:17) * Distorted hi pitched and post-punky singing, short.
17 (4:25) **** Slow and warped, sweet and sad (pained vox). Distorted guitars and sweet backup singers. Slow warp-out, for 30 seconds.
18 (0:44) *** A scream, and plunks, meowing and more. Just SFX. Short.
19 (2:20) *** Heavy plodding beat, "Here's to all the..." monologue. Then SHE and he sing, country rocky (Dr Dogish)
20 (0:54) * Ragtimey slide guitar strut with weirdo effects. Short.
21 (3:07) *** Plunky and pained, midtempo. Sweet.
22 (0:57) *** Fuzzy guitar and handclaps, short.
23 (5:54) *** Slow and chanty, with fuzzy and distorted weird sounds "Nestle Quik...Mickey Mouse"; then church organ. Heavy and slowish continuing on...
24 (1:09) * Distorted noodling, short.