MR. CALIFORNIA & THE STATE POLICE : "10 SONG SEVEN INCH RECORD" 7"EP....I went hat in hand and asked for your feedback on the hot young garage punk bands of 2003, and you, the readers, came out in force and told me. God love ya for that. I took a spin around the aforementioned Amoeba Music before the aforementioned Clean show & tried to find some of the 45s from the bands you told me I needed to hear. Struck out with COBRA KILLER, THE HOSPITALS, MISTREATERS and a few others that just couldn't be found, but hit paydirt with LOST SOUNDS and MR. CALIFORNIA & THE STATE POLICE. Haven't cued up the former, but I'm ready to render a verdict on the latter's 1999 EP: I'm not into 'em. Hey, they've (he's? some indication that this might be a one-man band) got a great name, got some short-circuiting electronic spazz sounds, sound obnoxo vocals, and even wrote a song about former Intel CEO Andy Grove ("Andy Grove") -- but for the most part MC&TSP are kinda spazz and silly for the sake of it. Silly! Quite a charge to level, I realize. The recommeder must have based his high regard for the band on another disc, am I right?

posted by Jay H. at 10:05 PM