Agony Shorthand
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Thursday, June 22, 2006
CURLEE WURLEE : “SHE’S A PEST” CD......
Despite visions of Josie & The Pussycats and sugary Saturday morning TV snacks every time I spin this one, I have to admit that this 2001 CD from Germany’s CURLEE WURLEE is a nice, fat ripsnorting guilty pleasure. I found them while clicking around the information superhighway one evening, and read about this garage/party band that sounded like a 60s French ye-ye act playing a bazillion miles an hour, and I said what the hey – an mp3 costs nothing. Expecting little, I found myself downright charmed by this act & picked up this CD, whereupon the charming continued. I’ll throw out my usual self-protecting caveats and own up that the band’s sound is closer to something you’d find Japanese teenage girls screaming about than, say, thirtysomething bearded record collectors, but if that’s cool with you then it’s certainly cool with me. Curlee Wurlee (hot name!) split the difference between the aforementioned 60s pop bombs and a real slicked-up version of some 90s garage band like THE MUMMIES, with a bratty-sounding female singer who alternates between French and English. Every song is bang-bang-bang, over and done with in less than 2 minutes & usually rushing by at Concorde speed, with a ringing Hammond organ that’s been moved way to the front of the mix. I mean, what’s not to like, right? Some of it’s even pretty tuff, too, like the roaring “Dustbin Life”, which even the beer-slammin' crew over at Terminal Boredom could probably stand behind with pride. If you fancy the fast-paced "beat" sound, don't recoil at the notion of a "dance party", and have nearly unlimited patience for cuteness, then do I have a record for you, punker!
Despite visions of Josie & The Pussycats and sugary Saturday morning TV snacks every time I spin this one, I have to admit that this 2001 CD from Germany’s CURLEE WURLEE is a nice, fat ripsnorting guilty pleasure. I found them while clicking around the information superhighway one evening, and read about this garage/party band that sounded like a 60s French ye-ye act playing a bazillion miles an hour, and I said what the hey – an mp3 costs nothing. Expecting little, I found myself downright charmed by this act & picked up this CD, whereupon the charming continued. I’ll throw out my usual self-protecting caveats and own up that the band’s sound is closer to something you’d find Japanese teenage girls screaming about than, say, thirtysomething bearded record collectors, but if that’s cool with you then it’s certainly cool with me. Curlee Wurlee (hot name!) split the difference between the aforementioned 60s pop bombs and a real slicked-up version of some 90s garage band like THE MUMMIES, with a bratty-sounding female singer who alternates between French and English. Every song is bang-bang-bang, over and done with in less than 2 minutes & usually rushing by at Concorde speed, with a ringing Hammond organ that’s been moved way to the front of the mix. I mean, what’s not to like, right? Some of it’s even pretty tuff, too, like the roaring “Dustbin Life”, which even the beer-slammin' crew over at Terminal Boredom could probably stand behind with pride. If you fancy the fast-paced "beat" sound, don't recoil at the notion of a "dance party", and have nearly unlimited patience for cuteness, then do I have a record for you, punker!