Neurotic Showering Habits

Playful, energetic, stripped-down guitar rock with male vocals from this Oakland duo. They employ a string of guest bassists including Stoo Odom of Subarachnoid Space and Graves Brothers Deluxe. 2nd LP, reminiscent of minimalist late '70s bands such as The Mekons (as they sounded back then), The Feelies, and the poppier side of Swell Maps... and more recently, early Pavement. Very satisfying combination of ad-hoc, noisy delivery with deep, expansive song structures--a bit like Kaito (but not as wild) in this regard. Every song will have a place in some context on some show. Start with 3, 5, 9, 14, 15.

1. Bouncy, very Feelies-like. Humorous lyrics.
2. 18 seconds of repetitive synth, then ponderous, heavy guitar that breaks into soft/loud indie rock. A complex song. Ends abruptly.

=> 3. Mysterious, medium tempo surf-ish folk punk. Begins with solo drums. Great lines: "...but then you put me in a trance/and now i'm peeing in my pants/you got a lot of things I don't want/ like a lot of problems/and i don't wanna solve 'em."

4. Lazy delivery with fast tempo, Very Swell Maps like. "You've got me standing by, indicator lights in my eyes." Ends abruptly

=> 5. Noisy with threatening vocals and excellent ragged guitar work. Medium tempo, highly dynamic. A short story in a song.

6. Another noisy rocker with cool angular breaks. An instrumental apart from the indecipherable, low caterwauling.
7. Medium-fast, driving instrumental with some 'oohs' and odd noises in the background. Toward end some psychedelic foreign-language samples.
8. Starts slow and psychedelic with sampled voice, improv playing, glass breaking... at 1:32 there's a short drum solo, some bird screeches, and it's over.

=> 9. Starts with Television-like guitar and a sort of Tuxedomoon, no-wave feel. Recalls the more ragged side of Pavement. Medium tempo with understated power.

10. Instrumental. Fuzzy guitar and bird sounds turn into a happy indie rocker that goes aggressive... and comes back.
11. Wacked out, medium tempo indie rock with high-register male vocals, guitar, & castanets... then a grunge break. Go figure.
12. Relatively straight-ahead, medium-fast indie rock. End of song gets slow and creepy and fades away.
13. Moaning guitar sound effects are joined by perky snare drum, becoming an upbeat rocker with harmony vocals. Half-tempo chorus gets moody and trippy again, then back to rockin', then ends near where it started.

=> 14. Very cool novelty number mixing chord progression of The Stooges 'I Wanna Be Your Dog' with OTT vocals like Bobby "Boris" Pickett's Monster Mash. Plus an insane guitar solo. Wow. Ends with 40 seconds of bird sounds.

=> 15. Unlisted bonus: starts at 17:23 of this track (that's 2:39 remaining), ends at 19:30 (that's 0:33 remaining). Great, happy instrumental complete with tambourine and hand-claps from Gar Wood of Hot Snakes. This track is apparently called 'Superfun.'