New GrenadaParting Shots ( ASUARUS Records ) 2005 New Grenada's Parting Shots is yet another homemade opus from the excellent folks at Asaurus Records, America's premier lo fi label and home to such obscurist luminaries as Pants Yell!, Winter Vacation, and Black Spartacus. Unfortunately Parting Shots gets off on a bit of the wrong foot with "X-Treme Attack", a grating, tossed-off synth-fest weighed down by its own detachment that stands as the least enjoyable track on the album. "Subliminal Subject" rights the ship with some impressive, Superchunk-y indie pop then shifts directly into the thrilling mini-sprawl of "Nicole Vs. Rita", in which leader Shawn Knight snarls the heady mantra "potental can be dangerous" at the outtro. "Nerd Alert" borrows the ominous groove from "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes", rather successfully replacing Modest Mouse's icy guitar 'otherworldness' with thrift-store keyboards and half-sung female vocals. "Into the Ground" is a full on fuzzy rave-up, packed full of synth freak outs, mild scorn and unbridled energy. New Grenada takes a more mellow approach on the excellent "Just Inside A Week", which augments a straightforward indie folk verse with a crunchy middle and inventive vocals. "Lightning Parade" trades a bit too heavily in circa-2003 Casio art-school irony for my tastes, but "The Melks" quickly wins me back with a twisting melody, fully realized dynamics and guitar sprawl. "Why I Didn't Like August '93" is a satisfying hunk of Nuggets-like garage pop in which Knight admits both "I got a girl problem" and "I got a drug problem", summing up nicely the adolescent trials of the early 90's for many of us. "20 lbs" is a brief, half-baked kiss-off while "Hot War" is a full-on freak out, suggesting that New Grenada could be a pretty powerful live band. Closer "The Band El Boxeo" is a hipster campfire song that's both tender and a little bratty. Parting Shots is a very good record that may fumble around for an audience. The album may be a bit too ambitious and developed for fans of super modest lo fi home recordings and too cheeky and post-modernly self aware for more mainstream tastes. The jokey lyrics undercut the earnest achievements of the arrangements and melodies, seemingly in a last-ditch effort to prevent Parting Shots from becoming "serious" rock (see the lyrical reference to Teen Wolf Too for example). New Grenada is clearly chock full of talent and ideas and would be well served to realize that it's ok to make a flat-out great pop record without constantly making fun of the notion of "great pop" in the process. Sure, in the wrong hands "potential may be dangerous," but it's a long way from the 4-track to Use Your Illusion. Rooney
:: (11.21.05) |
