Record Review: Thunderegg "Cosmos" (Bleeding Gold Records)

$18 //
Edition of 125 Black //
https://bleedinggoldrecords.bigcartel.com/product/thunderegg-cosmos //

Right from the start this sounds like R.E.M. but it also has these elements of trippy rock music which makes me think of Pink Floyd and maybe not even because the first song is about a planetarium.   I recently learned that you can listen to "Dark Side of the Moon" while watching "Paul Blart 2", so I got that going for me now.     This song is just really dreamy, to kick things off, kind of hazy.    As this kicks into the second part the pace picks up and it has this 1970's rock feel to it like it could be something from Woodstock but maybe not as crazy as all of that and something more like Cream.

"As If It Found Someone" takes on this walking rock sound, which somehow reminds me of Buddy Holly mixed with Better Than Ezra.    One of my favorite lyrics on this album comes out in this song as well with: "Come start a band with me, ride in a van with me, jump from town to town. Fan insanity, rock ’n’ roll fantasy" though the first time I listened to this record I misheard the one line as "fading sanity" and was like "Yeaaaaaah, that's me".   And then oddly enough we go into "I Turn Automatic" which is a song about kind of shutting off feelings and not letting people in, yet somehow appropriate for me as well.

This music has a chill rock vibe to it and for some reason I imagine it at a party, spinning on the turntable next to an ashtray full of cigarette butts.   It'd be the morning after the party- people passed out on the couch and floor- and someone would sneak over and slowly start playing this record.   Is that a music video for it?  Could it be?  Probably not, but it is a general vibe of what this album sounds like even though it also has this somewhat upbeat feel to it musically with mostly downbeat lyrics, which I've always loved.

"Pleasant Hill" continues to play on the overall vibe of these lyrics with insecurities and feelings of not fitting in with lines such as "Can I talk to you honestly? Can I tell you I’m afraid? Can I ask what this world wants of me, and what if I don’t want to obey? And will you run away with me, or am I someone you’ll forget?"   Is that not one of the biggest fears everyone has-- being forgotten?  I feel like it is.  Everyone wants to feel like they make an impact in a way which will be remembered, because it's like, if you don't remember me and we knew each other five years ago, how will I ever be remembered hundreds of years after I'm dead?

Keeping with that 1970's Woodstock/trippy type of vibe "Cosmos" has this vibe of something that would play with footage of the Vietnam War, like "M*A*S*H" or that one episode of "The Wonder Years" where Wayne's friend comes back from the war and starts running around the beach and takes off all of his clothes saying he feels like nothing fits him anymore.   And yet, those feelings of the war and that time could also be connected with these lyrics, no?  It's funny I'm tying this album with a war though when it has such obvious references to space I should perhaps be more focused on.

On the flip side the drums really take hold on the song "Stupid Town", which has an almost Neon Trees meets Franz Ferdinand feel to it (And somehow it also doesn't really remind me of the Live song "Shit Town")   "Goddamn Love" has a definite twee feel to it, like Bunnygrunt perhaps.    "I Almost Cry" has this Simon and Garfunkel feel to it and I think there is an overall Beach Boys vibe on this record as well.   It also reminds me of that song with Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach, which was in an Austin Powers movie but I don't remember which one.

Even though this ends with a nice love ballad about math, I wouldn't call this math rock.   I actually reviewed a cassette by Thunderegg once before but I still keep looking and find that they've been making music since the 1990's and even spent some time doing so in Connecticut.    Thunderegg might be one of the least known bands that has the most music under their belt and I'm not saying that in a bad way but because of all these albums you think they'd be up there with The Grateful Dead or Flaming Lips in terms of household names goes.   Still, if you haven't heard Thunderegg the best part about them is that there is always time to hop on the wagon.