Minus Story

Even the most iron-faced person should crack a smile when a band describes their production style as a "wall of shit.” Though this Midwestern band did indeed mix the ideals of lo-fi and psychedelia together admirably on their debut EP, The Captain is Dead, Let the Drum Corpse Dance, it was never that shitty. It was actually a kind of sloppiness that had some tight, catchy melody humming around its core. Well, on their second full-length, they decided to get rid of the shit and bring in an outside producer, one John Congleton, fresh off of the recent Explosions in the Sky and Polyphonic Spree efforts. Thus, it seems most songs here have a sheen to them and while it works well, that "wall of shit” is actually kind of missed. Songs like "Stitch Me Up” and "Beast At My Side” sound beautiful and poppy but their shambolic past provided their songs with an incredible electricity. "Mama Mama” skirts their past triumphs but still reins it in when it gets close to breaking loose. This is still wonderfully composed and thought-out music but it seems it needs the sonic equivalent of a drunken, oversexed uncle at a wedding to make things interesting.