Cassette Review: Snack Mountain & The Boys Who Live "The Magic In Me" (Crossroads of America Records)

[$5 // Edition of 150 // http://www.xrarecords.com/catalog/snack-mountain-the-boys-who-live-the-magic-in-me/]

"The Magic In Me" is seven songs and when I first pressed play on it my thoughts came from a place of that band that wonders "How Far Is Heaven" because of a similar guitar riff.    Some names ran through my head from the Flaming Lips to Group Love to Relient K and I sat around trying to figure out who this sounded like exactly.   Now when I can't do this it becomes a matter of the artist having a unique yet familiar sound.    But in this instance, on track four, it hit me.    This sounds like Sherwood.

Now I'm not saying that this sounds exactly like Sherwood, but even still, that band made one of my favorite all-time albums.   You want to know how I know they made one of my all-time favorite albums?   Because it has the distinction of being one of only two compact discs that I have ever had accidentally break.   Not scratch-- break.    Ever.    And last I remember Sherwood wasn't even a band anymore (They had joined forces with Waking Ashland to form something new) so if the band I feel like you primarily sound like happens to be no longer making new music that also happens to work in your favor.  (Because then you can't argue "Well, why not just listen to Sherwood then?")

There are hints of The Rocket Summer on here, who is another big influence in my musical background and I just remember meeting/interviewing that dude and how cool he was, back when I left my house.    Piebald also comes out at times and they're in a similar boat with the other bands I'm mentioning because all of these influences are really just so good.    And they're good enough and done in a way that is going to become part of Snack Mountain enough that I don't even mind the fifth song sounding a little bit like Owl City in the structure.

As if all of this wasn't enough, so that you couldn't put this into that certain era of The Militia Group when I loved every band on their roster, the last song takes on that Buddy Holly feel, like something out of the movie "That Thing You Do!" and, yes, it is even complete with garage sounding organs.     So don't let the general idea of these songs or any one thing about this music fool you, as you can never be truly prepared for what Snack Mountain is about to do.    Just rest easy knowing it's going to be good.