Young Knives – Superabundance
Rykodisc (4/22/08)
Geek rock / Post-punk revival
1. It doesn’t matter how educated your band members are; songs sung in certain British accents can make you sound like a Tracey Ullman bit character.
2. The British wit is such that you can title a song in text-speak (“Fit 4 U”) and still consider yourselves geek rock.
3. “Terra Firma” nearly manages to vindicate the shameful legacy of “disco punk.”
4. The corrupting influence of Sgt. Pepper and George Martin’s orchestras is apparently still going strong (“Turn Tail”).
5. Nothing Weezer or Nirvana accomplished in the ’90s as far as writing songs from the point of view of a child can redeem a song with a title so ridiculous as “Mummy Light the Fire.”
6. Especially when said song is some bastardized campfire sing-along.
7. The mathematical formula for making tribal drums sound safe, white, and sexless is: (4/4 beat x overproduction)—the actual presence of a real native instrument in exchange for a basic drum kit = “I Can Hardly See Them”.
8. Nonsensical songs about bugs didn’t go out of style with the Presidents of the United States of America.
9. Being unabashedly geeky and ironic can’t stifle a shot of sheer pogo-punk insulin like “Up All Night” or “Counters”.
10. Irony has infected the music scene so thoroughly that Young Knives can make an album full of songs that are, in fact, completely random and pointless but still position themselves in such a way that people will believe they’re actually quite cerebral.
11. Ashbeian post-punk is where sex goes to die.
