In their many years of existence, these veteran avant-gardists evolved further and further from their roots in complex rock into more and more "out" live performances. Check out their cd Not a Food on Pravda Records, recorded by Steve Albini. Cool stuff. Their sixth full-length Enduring the American Dream (also on Pravda). Line-up included Thymme Jones (Brise-Glace, Tony Conrad, Illusion of Saftey, You Fantastic!), Phil Bonnet (recording engineer to many many bands, who died of a brain aneurysm in early 1999), Jeff Libersher and not-so-new bassist Dylan Posa (The Flying Luttenbachers, Brise Glace, Tony Conrad) on a rotating assortment of instruments with guests Jeb Bishop (Vandermark 5) and several others...
The album careens from well-crafted pop-rock to almost unlistenable noise-a-thons. Though some of the tracks flirt dangerously with becoming overly-pretentious modernist noise-statements, the various elements of this concept-oriented album stands well together as a whole. Particularly interesting are the tracks "vacuum" (yep there's a vacuum played as an instrument) and the piano-oriented "dismantling the berlin waltz." "failure" sounds a bit like what Ben Folds Five would be if they got upset and didn't follow a pop-by-the-numbers formula. All in all a solid, if at times challenging (and that's not necessarily a bad thing), album.
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