Cassette Review: Woody Murder Mystery "Lost in Beacaire" (Freemount Records)

€6 //

Edition of 50 //

https://woodymurdermystery.bandcamp.com/album/lost-in-beaucaire //

What is a Woody Murder Mystery?  On one hand, it makes me think that the cowboy from Toy Story has been killed and all of the other toys from that movie must join forces to find out who did it, but I doubt that would ever fly at Disney because they only kill off family members.    It could just imply something in the woods and while this music does have a getting lost in the woods feel to it I'm not sure how much it feels like murder.

Woody Murder Mystery is a good psychedelic name for a band though.  Like Jefferson Airplane.   And this music does fit along those lines to an extent as well.  I definitely could imagine Woody Murder Mystery as having played the original Woodstock based upon their sound.    Elements of this remind me of The Beatles but there is also hints of The Doors, Cream and Joe Cocker.   A lot of this music is just hopping onto that organ wave and seeing where you can ride it.

At its core, this is rock music.  Bands like Silversun Pickups and High Pop come to mind in a more modern sense.    But it definitely has this trippy feel to it and I dare to even go so far as to say that fans of jam bands like The Grateful Dead would want to rock this one.   It's just difficult to place because while it has a distinct and often times more than not feeling of classic rock (see: the 1960's) it also has elements of the modern psych-garage scene which gives Woody Murder Mystery their own unique trip.

While most of these songs have words some of them are instrumental and through the instrumental ones I prefer to just let the instruments do the talking.   There are spoken word parts for songs instead of singing as well and if you didn't know Woody Murder Mystery is from France (via their Bandcamp page) and as such some of these lyrics are in French but I don't think that they all are. 

Sometimes these songs paint scenes to a movie.   It is a movie that has not yet been made, so I can't quite tell you exactly what the movie is, but it is one defined by its soundtrack.   For some reason I almost immediately think of "Pulp Fiction" in the sense that it was such an iconic film and yet at the same time it carried this nearly as iconic soundtrack.   There are certain songs you hear and they just remind you of "Pulp Fiction" (or other Tarantino films)   I feel like that's the case with this Woody Murder Mystery cassette except these songs are from a movie not yet made and that makes them all the more intriguing.