CD reviews

Discovery

LP
(XL Recordings)
*6.7*

Goes well with: Ra Ra Riot, Vampire Weekend, Casio synthesizers, dance remixes

I’m a total geek for Ra Ra Riot. I also learned to hate, then love, then like Vampire Weekend. As such, I approached this side dish from Wes Miles (RRR) and Rostam Batmanglij (VW) with cautious optimism. I was right to be both wary and hopeful.

Discovery doesn’t uncover anything monumental on LP, but Miles and the Batman do manage to intrigue by dismembering familiar sounds in unexpected ways, landing somewhere between earnest experimentation and art-school dance party. The album is heavy on synth and vocal effects, which yields both pedestrian fare (“Orange Shirt,” “Slang Tang”) and captivating weirdness (“Osaka Loop Line,” “So Insane”). LP features Angel Deradoorian (Dirty Projectors) on “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” and VW vocalist Ezra Koenig (apparently channeling Akon) on “Carby” while also reimagining Ra Ra Riot’s “Can You Tell” and the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” as disfigured dance tracks with creative, albeit curious, results.

I can’t really fault—and, in fact, I commend—the attempt to tread beyond the familiar waters of Ra Ra Riot and Vampire Weekend. But I’d still advise both Miles and Batmanglij to not quit their day jobs.

Wes Miles and Ra Ra Riot play Saturday, Aug. 29, at Street Scene.

Box Elders

Alice and Friends
(Goner)
*7.7*

Goes well with: Connie Francis, taking your best gal to the submarine races

Have you heard the one about the drummer who plays with his organ while he performs? It sounds like the set-up for a bad joke, but it’s true. Dave Goldberg, the Box Elders’ drummer, can beat the drums and play with his organ at the same time.

Bad jokes and tricky gimmicks aside, the trio from Omaha play a mean, clean brand of doo-wop complete with harmonizing vocals. The band calls it “cave pop,” and though it shares a lot of qualities with retro garage pop, the McIntyre brothers keep it fresh with their guitar playing and vocals. Classic early-’60s love songs like “Stay,” “Necro” and “Atlantis” have a straight-forward back beat. “One Foot in Front of the Other” and “2012” are faster and more raucous-sounding. They even bust out the howling vocals on the tongue-in-cheek “Cougars,” a song about the kind of predators you find in dive bars.

The Box Elders are to garage pop what The Queers are to punk—forward driving but backward looking with a kind of sweetness that careens between sentimental and psychedelic. But instead of fuzzy guitars, there’s spastic bursts of one-handed organ playing. Just don’t try it at home—or anywhere.

Box Elders play Sunday, Aug. 30, at Bar Pink.

The Dead Weather

Horehound
(Third Man Records)
*3.7*

Goes well with: The White Stripes, The Kills

In 2003, Rolling Stone named Jack White the 17th best guitarist ever. Now, three Grammys later, he’s featured—alongside Jimmy Page and The Edge—in a documentary about the history of the electric guitar (It Might Get Loud).
Am I the only one who thinks there’s something wrong about the way White’s been fast-tracked to rock-god status? The dude’s basically a decent vessel for Southern rock traditions, but short of “Seven Nation Army,” he hasn’t written a catchy, heavy tune for the ages. All of a sudden, he gets acting gigs, gobs of cred and the creative license to launch indulgent, spotty side projects without actually laying the groundwork of a Physical Graffiti or a Joshua Tree to deserve it.

The Dead Weather is another such vanity project. This time around, Jack’s chosen to pass much of the vocal duties to Alison Mosshart of The Kills, who manages to wrap her voice in enough bad-mic flatness to sound exactly like White himself. The record is an uneven affair, full of half-formed solos, shoddy drum clatter and the sort of creepy Dixie posturing that makes people who have never been to the South think Black Snake Moan is a factual cultural study.
Ultimately, Horehound sounds a lot like the rest of White’s oeuvre—self-satisfied and undercooked but with frustrating glimpses of brilliance. I’m sure it will win him another Grammy, and then maybe Obama will appoint him ambassador to Electric Ladyland or something.