Weblog entry:
- Butchering Candy
-
I suppose I should preface this review by saying that I find pop music about as charming as IE’s float model.Okay, two of you found that funny.
Anyway, the Candy Butchers are a dirty musical pleasure I’m secretly proud of. Singer/songwriter Mike Viola has always struck me as the kind of guy who’d slip into a fine restaurant simply because he was wearing the right kind of sports blazer, only to be thrown out minutes later for spiking the vichysoisse with wood grain alcohol. Writing pop songs that never get tired, Viola’s perfectly content to nestle deep within a mainstream sound before churning out tastily dark, subversive lyrics — from What To Do With Michael:
They met in New York a few months later
He was still living alone
Hugging the bar and masturbating
Never answered his phoneTheir first date was a movie together
Outside at Bryant Park
Well, The Spirit Of St. Louis just went on forever
So they drank wine until they saw starsAll of this wrapped up in a piano-heavy, catchy rock ballad that’d make Ben Folds run home crying.
But the best part is that the music’s good (see "I hate pop music," above). Hang On Mike, the Butchers’ latest album, is probably the most unassuming album of theirs that I’ve heard: opting for gut-wrenching acoustic solos instead of the heavier sound from prior records, Viola’s got a nasty, sharp-edged, excellent piece of music that’s worth checking out.
And it’ll make Ben Folds cry. C’mon, who doesn’t want that?
-
- 04th day of March 2004.
- Filed under Reviews, Music.
There’s a WordPress issue that’s currently preventing old comments from displaying correctly. Sorry for the inconvenience, but hopefully we’ll be back online soon.