Skip to main contentBlue Giant Target Heart EP
(buyolympia.com)
[ACHY BREAKY HEART] The most surprising, and enjoyable, thing about Blue Giant's Target Heart EP is how unpretentious it is. Supergroups are supposed to produce overblown, ambitious records, but this is a loose, restrained set of country-folk tunes that sounds like the results of an afternoon drinking moonshine in the basement and listening to the Flying Burrito Brothers and Music From Big Pink on repeat.
Beginning as an outlet for Kevin and Anita Robinson of Viva Voce to play some music with their friends, Blue Giant's other members (including the Decemberists' Chris Funk and Seth Lorinczi of the Golden Bears) serve as a backing band to Kevin, who moves from behind the drum kit to strum an acoustic and sing lead on five of the EP's six tracks. The raucous, sun-drenched rave-up "Blue Sunshine" is an immediate highlight, with some of Anita Robinson's wicked guitar licks, but it's the quieter numbers—the Anita-sung slow-burner "Lonely Girl" and "Gone for Good," a duet between Kevin and former Sleater-Kinney singer Corin Tucker that wouldn't be out of place blasting from a Nashville jukebox—that make the most lasting impression. Let's hope they stay together long enough for a full-length.
Cafeteria Dance Fever Heck On Earth
(Hovercraft Records)
[PAJAMA PARTY IN A HAUNTED HIVE] You wouldn't be wrong for labeling Cafeteria Dance Fever's Heck on Earth a full-length album. It's just a bit tricky: Records consisting of 18 songs generally last longer than an episode of The Office.
Despite its brevity, the twentysomething-minute Heck on Earth is a thrashy, fast and fun collage of punk rawk chords, wrecked instruments and the laconic boy-girl vocals of Cain Hendricks and Sacia Dillon. If you can't tell from the titles (my favorites include "Zombie Roller Derby of the Disembodied Afros" and "Jonathan Taylor Thomas Is Too Good to Be True") and songs about mermaid vampires, the group is clearing enjoying itself. Mashing rapid-fire, 4/4 drum beats with loud guitars, warped keys and atypical instrumental breakdowns—the funky opening death march of "Cafeteria Dance Fever Yeah" features xylophone and an out-of-tune brass section—Cafeteria Dance Fever sounds like a garage band prepping for the ultimate gig at a haunted house.
Blue Giant plays the Crystal Ballroom's 95th birthday party on Sunday, Jan. 25. Free. 1:30 pm. All ages. See this page. Cafeteria Dance Fever plays East End Friday, Jan. 23, at Dummer Bummer fest. 5 pm. $10. 21+. See page 34.
WWeek 2015