Cheer-Accident
What Sequel?
Pravda
Cheer-Accident seems to thrive on the contradictions of experimental music. For every straight-ahead piano-driven pop number there’s a a song flailing hard rock riffs with abandon, and usually these two opposing genres are place right next to one another. The press kit for this disc makes sure to point out that this release is meant to be taken as the direct follow-up to the band’s debut The Why Album, despite being twelve years and six albums later. By and large, the group does an admirable job synthesizing an avant-garde pop collection from decades old indie rock basics and eccentric asides. There are shades of Pavement, Unwound and Sonic Youth in the slightly atonal slacker guitar strum on “Keep in Touch,” the pogoing chorus punctuation seems particularly Malkmus-ian. “Go Gone Green” has a great drive of ’70s prog/jazz thanks to its pounding piano rhythm and horn leads. Jesus Lizard skronk spreads out all over “Surviving a Methodology;” chugging guitars cut a sinister path through a rhythm section bent on strange time signatures. It might not be the masterpiece the press release claims it is, but as an album of ’90s fringe indie rock revisited, it’s a fine statement.
Pravda Records: http://www.pravdamusic.com
