Here comes a collective from Saskatchewan with bookish name and cogent lyrics. Three of the eight breathe new life into such tools of quirk as Casio keys, Bontempi organ and glockenspiel. A clever song title like “Insider Trading (on Outsider Art)” gets justified by a lyric like “We are desperate as fashion.” “Haunt This House” pits the present against the future. “Family Night”’s suburbia is a medicated prison. The music, aspiring to evoke the Zombies, falls a bit short. That could be solved by getting the drummer to drink decaf, or record inside an adjoining closet. Regardless, these are brainy waves flowing across the flatlands.
This article appears in May 20-26, 2010.