Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Cassette Review: k^ren "Not Bald" (Tingo Tongo Tapes)


https://soundcloud.com/tingotongotapes //
https://karensmells.bandcamp.com/album/not-bald //

The sounds of k^ren on "Not Bald" are somewhat different from that on "25 Karen Gold".   This release comes after that one but it is more treble than before.  In some ways it can remind me of Tora! Tora! Torrance! and in other ways it reminds me of the Presidents of the United States of America.   But there is an overall alternative rock vibe to it, like something out of the same era as POTUSA.    The guitars at times even remind me of Silverchair, though the music can also break down into this wild math rock feel which is just insane.

On Side A there is a song about Roger Clemens and perhaps he is the greatest pitcher to ever play the game.  I watched this documentary once about Dwight Gooden and it said that the pitches he was throwing were against the rules of science.  But, Gooden also burned out and only had a few good seasons under his belt.  Pitchers like Roger Clemens definitely only come along once in a lifetime (The only other who comes close that I can think of right now is Nolan Ryan) and I just love that I can type about baseball.

There is also this song about how he needs a new i.d. but really hates the DMV and, ugh, I feel the DMV has been the butt of jokes since it first opened and yet they don't do anything to try and make it better.  But that's the government, right?   Through audio clips as if we're flipping the stations on a radio, we ultimately find a song about how much whoever wrote it loves flowers (and rightfully so) and then a "Bathroom Mishap" which I will leave for you to listen to on your own.

After some radio check ins, Side B takes us on this blues guitar riff based journey.    This goes back into a wild ride which sounds more like the cassette which came before this but these guitar riffs also feel a little bit ska.    Something about ice cream and something about raw meat, these lyrics can be as strange as the music on the flip side.   It goes on and on about ice cream until it finally reaches the end and says "Ok, it's over, everybody gets the joke now".










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