Catchy downer music ferrets out details more embarrassing than most twentysometh
author: Robert Christgau - Village Voice
The Vitamen -- Catchy downer music and words that ferret out details funnier and more embarrassing than most twentysomething sarcasts are smart enough to notice, much less write songs about.
Read more...
There may be better locally released full-lengths this year (though I certainly
author: Jersey Beat
THE VITAMEN – FUN (www.thevitamen.com) They don’t try to overwhelm you sonically. Nobody in this group is addicted to heavy wattage, and frontman and guitarist Jesse Blockton doesn’t tend to play big chords, favoring instead the kind of brittle, complicated instrumental parts that will inevitably get this group compared to Steely Dan. No, The Vitamen like to clear space for their lyrics, and since Blockton is also loath to shout, that means pulling back on verses and limiting instrumental monkeying-about. But have no doubt, they’re going to get your attention anyway. Three guys singing lines such as "I’m afraid if I live alone/I'm gonna rip all the skin off my dick" and "was every girl on earth molested/or am I just bad in bed?" in tight harmony will tend to accomplish that. Blockton is the Philip Roth of NYC indie rock, a writer grappling with questions about masculinity, urban life, and the relationship between the two, steeped in a classic tradition (in this case, seventies radio rock and singer-songwriters) and completely uninterested in chasing trends. Like Roth, Blockton can be potty-mouthed, but he compensates by spinning surprisingly moving narratives out of occasionally crass threads. It further helps that the group’s feel for rock song composition is unquestionably masterful. Fun, their debut, consists of 17 songs recorded cheaply on four-track, presented humbly and without much studio polish. Nevertheless, at least eleven of these ought to permanently penetrate the consciousness of any close listener, particularly the breathy, touching "I Can’t Say It", "Dramatic" (I court the horror of the Vitamen by suggesting it sounds like an outtake from Workingman’s Dead, but I mean it as the highest complement possible), bassist Matt Hyams’s absurdly catchy "Pretty Little Secret" and "Please Show Me The Way", and "The Truth", Blockton’s devastating defense of dishonesty. Fun presents the Vitamen’s ideas cogently and courageously, allowing their arguments and worldview to unfold at an easily assimilable pace. There may be better locally released full-lengths this year (though I certainly can’t think of any), but there won’t be any as immediate, coherent, or moving, and those qualities will always trump slick professionalism and the lure of a big sound. - Tris McCall, Jersey Beat
Read more...