It’s a Hit

by the King Khan & BBQ Show

(Fat Possum, 7-inch)

If you know this act already, chances are you’ve already figured out
what they sound like—a likably skuzzy garage stomp with yowled
vocals and guitars that never get tired of playing their one strutting
lick. The lick is good, though, and so are the words, which concern the
kind of bash you’d expect to see on Adult Swim, complete with
imitations of animal noises and an unexpected pizza delivery. A far
more apt depiction of college life than Asher Roth’s—but then, so
was the Marx Brothers’ Horse Feathers.

by Math Head

(Ad Noiseam)

Math Head is the alias of Brooklyn dubstep producer Ben Deitz, who
debuts with this three-song EP. It opens with “Terror Inc.,” whose
clichéd guitar gnarl grinds over the track in a way that kind of
reminds me too much of My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult. It’s followed
by one actually called “Thrill Kill,” which is not only unscary but
actually kind of dreamy: dubstep as sonic playground, some knife’s-edge
snare work here, a menacing robot riff over there, none of it
groundbreaking but pretty pleasurable anyhow. The aptly named “Last”
skulks around the corner near a bodega whose radio is playing banjo
music for two minutes and 42 seconds, before deciding to get out of the
rain. (As for My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, whom I name-checked
less than a month ago regarding friggin’ U2, I will hereby not allow
myself to be reminded of them in this column again.)

“Mirando”/”Mirando
(Animal Collective
Remix)”

by Ratatat

(XL)

I’m still a believer that a single can sum up an artist better than
an album can, and while I wouldn’t put money on it, that’s sort of how
“Mirando” strikes me. I’ve never been much of a Ratatat fan—seen
’em live and everything, and I have to imagine listening to them do
this for an hour would get to me. “This” being instrumental
electro-rock where the cheesy, outsized arena-rock guitarmonies mainly
demonstr-ate the futility of bothering to declare anything “ironic.”
For four minutes it gives me a nice glimpse into a band that mark their
time but don’t seem like they’ll go beyond it. Of course, I used to
think that about Animal Collective, whose remix of “Mirando” stretches
it out to a 10-minute moss-covered strobe-light special; if you’re
frothing over their new album, try this, too.