Record Review: R. Stevie Moore & Boys Age Split 7" (Bleeding Gold Records)

[$7 // Edition of 200 // http://bleedinggoldrecords.bigcartel.com/product/r-stevie-moore-boys-age-split-7]

When I first saw this split record floating around on Twitter and the such, I literally thought it was just going to be a single by R. Stevie Moore and the song on Side A was called "Boysage".   Of course I found this funny because of the band called Boys Age, but then when I realized that it was an actual split and Boys Age was on Side B it made more sense to me.   But then I realized as well that R. Stevie Moore's song is actually called "Boysage"- so I wasn't that far off on my first assumption- and the song by Boys Age is called "Be Your R. Stevie Moore", so the two seem to be playing with each other for this split.

R. Stevie Moore's song "Boysage" isn't about the band so much as he sings about the different ages of boys.   At one point he says you're not admitted without a legal guardian or someone of adult age because mainly he's singing about what it's like to be under 10 mostly.   He'll rhyme though like "Boysage is 1 for fun / Boysage is 3 for me" and that sort of idea.   He does mention that growing up sucks and then at the end of the song there is this "Dancing in the mirror / Singing in the shower / Shut up!" bit that goes on for a while but never gets old to me.    The song is just a lot of fun as it has acoustic and electric guitars complete with keyboards and overall sound of synth pop electro madness with cowbell solos.    It kind of reminds me of They Might Be Giants in ways, but mostly it just has that R. Stevie Moore sound to it and so it becomes quite a special song whether or not you apply to it the band who is on the flip side.

Boys Age has a psychedelic pop swirl to their song on Side B and, well, if you've still not yet managed to hear Boys Age then I suggest you do so immediately because they have enough music out there that you should have heard at least one of their songs by now.    I also feel it's worth noting that Boys Age having this song on the B-Side of this record makes it harder for those who want to own everything by the band and I do feel like they're taking a Flaming Lips approach to "Let's see if we can release more music than any single person could possibly collect".     But, it's still early in the game yet so if you get in now there might be hope for you.

The reason why I like this split 7" is because it's not like other split 7" records.  It's not simply a matter of "Here's a band and here's their song, and then on the other side is another band and they have a song too".   R. Stevie Moore and Boys Age, perhaps two of the best and most underrated artists out there today, have essentially written these songs for each other.    The idea of this being a song by each artist would be enough to sell me on it, but the fact that the songs are so complimentary of each other and so specific to this record is what makes them really stand out and the reason why you should get this.    I wish we could see more artists do this sort of thing, to sort of personalize songs to each other.