Pages tagged “minty fresh”

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Ezra Furman & the Harpoons: Inside the Human Body

Young, gifted and crackedIf you’re Ezra Furman, you’re right out of college and the man in the grey suit threatens to steal your soul, so you fend off encroaching suburbia with a batch of new tunes. On his second album of jittery, willfully naive folk-punk, Furman plays the alienated romantic geek, employing a wobbly sense of pitch to better effect than anyone since the early Violent Femmes. “We Should Fight,” the great howling mess of an opener, sets the tone, all raw guitars and protestations of uncompromising humanity. The rest of the songs—alternating between strident rockers and swooning ballads—are overwrought,...  read more

Miou Miou: La La Grand Finale

Elegant chamber pop from the Czech RepublicRomantically inclined East Bohemian quintet Miou Miou writes and sings in French, and the lush, carefully manicured settings of the group’s debut seem Gallic as well, redolent of the band Air’s soundscapes. Citing influences as far-ranging as Serge Gainsbourg and The Modern Lovers, Claudine Longet and My Bloody Valentine, Miou Miou derives much of its disarming personality from Karolina Dytrtova, who sings with such ingénue delicacy that she makes Longet seem like Ethel Merman. But this band is far from twee, as a powerhouse rhythm section brings muscle and mass to the gossamer. The...  read more