As quirky and often dissonant, shrieky, shrill, balls-out, unafraid and urgently enthusiastic as The White Stripes, Pela, Robbers and Cowards, and The Cold War Kids , You’re My Lover Now is a beautiful, fine mess. Actually, one the band’s own members said that originally the “recording were clean and solid,†but then “the process began to break down initiating what I shall introduce as, ‘The natural and rapid disintegration of technological efficiency and cleanliness within a Teeth recording.’†That was all for the best, though, as You’re My Lover Now is at once deep, hysterically funny, and indie rock. No coincidence, then, that it was mixed by Nick Krill (Spinto Band).
Check out the philosophical break-up song, “Ball of the Dead Rat†(“No one liked it when you said that when you die, you’re really dead, so you left . . . Now you’re crying with the telephone.â€); or the bitter black humor of, “A Flight in the Dark†(“Even your eyes don’t say what they mean, watching your dad take down the Christmas tree/You’ve got his nose and his real estate, just pure as the kitty cats that he threw in the lakeâ€). And it’s not just the lyrics that hit hard—the whipping frenzy of hooks inside of hooks overlaying Walkmen-style vocals . . . Aaaaaaah.
Fabulous.
For fans of all the bands mentioned above, and also Pavement, Velvet Underground, and groundbreaking music as familiar as it is unlike anything you’ve heard before.
The tastes of the teeth:
The band has posted a copy of a 2005 show if you go here. It includes cuts like
Mercy Mercy Pudding Pie
and
The Killer Costume.
Also, check out:
