The Strange Boys

....And Girls Club

(In the Red)

March 25th, 2009

Remember when Dylan went electric at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965? Me neither. But the idea of someone turning the entire hulking mass of pop music on its ear with a single performance has probably been romanticized well past the point of what actually happened. Still, it's worth noting the world is a far more crowded place—musically and physically—than it was in '65, and no single performance anywhere is going to have that kind of impact on the world ever again. So why not skip trying to copy Bob's ungodly large stature and just take cues from his swagger and spit instead? The Strange Boys seem to have done just that, and their debut record has very wise, unpolished, molten attitude to spare. But it doesn't stop there. This Austin foursome has served as Roky Erickson's supporting band and three of these youngsters have been to jail. Maybe it was just shoplifting, but who cares. You don't need to kill anyone when your songs brandish biting titles like "For Lack of a Better Face," and sound like they were conceived in a garage tethered to an iron weather balloon moving straight into the eye of Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Any mustachioed/tattooed young buck worth his weight in idiosyncrasy ought to do himself a favor and set his next video part to a hot-knife Boys number like "This Girl Taught Me To Dance" or "Poem Party." And any heart-on-his-sleeve romantic with a sense of humor might actually get the girl if he opens his next fawning mixtape—or whatever the hell people use these days—with the thumb-in-the-eye love song, "No Way For A Slave To Behave." The only thing that doesn't make sense here is that I thought most kids these days were too busy typing with their thumbs to figure out where the best music comes from. I stand corrected.

–Josh Tyson

Standout track: "Heard You Wanna Beat Me Up"