The Negatones
Snacktronica EP
(Melody Lanes Records)
Hey, it seems that just about every single band coming out of New York these days is the hottest thing that you haven't heard yet. The Negatones are apparently one of the newest (even though this is their second EP) groups to have people singing their praises, and if their list of celebrity quotes (including everyone from Sonic Youth to Television) on their music is right, they're definitely playing in front of the right people and making an impression.
On the Snacktronica EP, the four piece group rips through 5 songs in just about 12 minutes, basically trying to leave it all on the proverbial floor in that time. Imagine slightly gritty garage sounding rock with just a touch of punctuations (from electronics to horns) and you're getting there. The opening track of "And So My Troubles Began" is easily the best and brightest of the bunch, mixing catchy guitar riffs, singalong vocals and both punchy electronic beats (alongside regular drumming) and blasts of horns. There's nothing completely inventive about the sound, but the group blasts through the just under three minutes with so much gusto that it's hard not to fall under the trance.
"Flattened By The Sun" follows it up with another punchy track mixing squalking keyboards with guitars and another driving rhythm section, but it never quite falls into step as well as the opener while the middle track of "I Suspect There's More" drops things off into a more mid-tempo groove, falling into a sound rut with over-echoed vocals and lack of subtlety. Fortunatley, the group redeems themselves with the perfectly silly closer of "Everything Oscillates," a nice mixture of chimes, breakbeats, and Ween-esque vocals that flies out the door in only a minute and a half. In the end, there's nothing exactly groundbreaking going on in these short 5 songs, but for quick kicks there's a lot worse things out there.
Rating: 6
