« The Duke Spirit | Main | The Octopus Project »
The Starlight Mints
Straight from Norman, Oklahoma, oddball pop constructed out of bright construction paper and Elmer's glue by four misfits. The Starlight Mints' indie pop is half psychedelic, half groovy, half retro (yes, I know that's three halves). Besides the obvious Flaming Lips influence, they also take a page from the book of both Beck (circa Midnite Vultures-era) and those canonical models of moody, jerky indie rock lead by one Mr. Black.
Their playful milkshake of plucky pop contains flourishes of cello, violin, triangle, and random sound effects from a host of toys: whistles, shakers, and various voice melding devices. The result is catchy, cheerful, and playful, augmented by frantic keyboards and horns. Marian Love Nunez's keyboards and sugary sweet voice lend a hard, candy coating to Alan Vest's punk-inflected, cracked nasal stylings, even when both are singing odd phrases and nonsense poetry. Even so, the band throws in some '60s sounds and "ba ba ba"s so we don't get lose or confused. The seemingly straightforward retro rocker "Pearls (Submarine #2)" is one of their more straightforward songs, but even those are orchestrated with all sorts of orchestral flair and whimsy.
After a long, long hiatus, they return with their third album of infectious weirdness, Drowaton, on Barsuk Records this coming April, and I, for one, can't wait.
The Starlight Mints - Pearls (Submarine #2)
The Starlight Mints - Drowaton
The Starlight Mints - Sugar Blaster
The Starlight Mints - Rinky Dinky
The Starlight Mints' official site. Pre-order Drowaton from Amazon. Buy Built on Squares from Amazon. They play Thursday, March 16 at 10:00 p.m. at The Parish.
Shadows tags:thestarlightmints.
Posted by Queen of the Front Row at 03.12.06 at 2:55 AM
Comments
Thanks for the review ! I missed out on the mp3s though....any chance for a yousendit? Would love to hear them.
Posted by: Miguel at 03.28.06 at 2:08 PM
Comments are now closed for this entry.
