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| There are two breeds of EP: the kind that offers a mercifully abbreviated
introduction to an appallingly bad band, and the sort that leaves you saying
"Only five songs? Give me more!" Low Fi Laugh (or Laff,
depending
on whether you go by the cover or the spine) falls solidly into the latter
category.
'clip, aka Geoff Johnston, was responsible for hysterically hummable
contributions
to the last two Chicken Ranch Roundup compilations, and it's obvious
that
he's got the goods to deliver a full-length. Combine the ultra-listenable
delivery of
Robyn Hitchcock or They Might Be Giants with a vicious-yet-straightforward
streak of sarcasm and you'll get tunes like "Camping with Uncle Jack" (hint --
camping has more than one meaning here) and the frighteningly true cross-genre
dating tale "Hoochies and Ho's". The brutally amusing "Cockblockin' for
Jesus"
is catchy as all hell, and sports a vocal-rhythmic similarity to that
Barenaked Ladies
song "One Week" that radio beat to death last year, cross-bred with REM.
But don't
panic, major-label haters -- the aesthetic on this CD-R release (a move designed to keep costs low, methinks, since Chicken Ranch is generally a "silver media" company) is distinctly indie low-fi.
Johnston plays
solo acoustic guitar, and the sound quality varies from decent on "George"
(which has nothing to do with this reviewer, thank god) to iffy on "Alyssa
Milano", which
was recorded live, apparently at the bottom of a grain silo. You get seven songs, all of
them clever and
catchy. You'll want fourteen. Or twenty-one. Or as many as you can get,
really.
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