Pangea | A Review of Living Dummy

Pangea is a garage band from Newhall California and their juvenile musical antics just might bring a smile to your face.  The Album Cover for Living Dummy needs a small analysis before we can get started on the music. First off, does that purple woman have three breasts and is she growing out of the top of a tunic wearing man’s head? The album art is reminiscent of some of the more insane works of Charles Bronson, the most notorious inmate to ever serve time in a British prison. However the image’s senselessness only adds to its allure, if you look closely (beyond the three breasts) you can see that all of the elements of this cover art are interconnected, linked through the strange fingers that seem to sprout from every imaginable part of each character pealing the eyes open of the tunic wearing man who bears a striking resemblance to a certain Clock Work Orange character. But that should be enough about the pervy purple people who adorn this album cover.

Pangea’s sound is very rough around the edges; its harsh and energetic sound is inspired by a Sex Pistol era punk rock. Lively and somewhat disturbing lyrics permeate all of this album’s tracks with great imagery. Far from brilliant but entirely endearing, Pangea’s Living Dummy is yet another one of those fast and dirty garage band’s to release an album over the past year.

 No Feeln’ and  Living Dummy are by far the most memorable songs on the album and make any of the band’s shortcomings forgivable.  

Japanther | A Review of Beets, Limes and Rice

Japanther may invoke the image of a giant black cat attacking Tokyo but that would not be a proper description of this Brooklyn New York band. The band which is made up of Ian Vanek and Matt Reilly is more of an arthouse punk. The tracks that populate their latest album Beets, Limes and Rice have simple enough lyrics matched with fairly straightforward instrumental play but the band adds texture to its music by layering in spoken word segments and some unconventional background vocals such as with Meet You Later.

If you had to put your finger on what makes this band and its latest work standout from other current releases it would have to be in the way their music taps into the psyche of a certain generation. It’s in the way they use the simple punk melodies of bands like Ramones and The Clash and dress them up with their own endearing lyrics and background layers. Whether it is intentional or not Japanther has created an album that both manipulates and entertains the listener. Right from the onset of Beets, Limes and Rice the minds behind the album are not so subtlety telling you off only to suck you in; the first lines from the album are literally “First of all Fuck You All!”. The third track off of the album Porcupine is by far the best of the album, railing in with distortion heavy guitar and a lightly sung background tonal portion. This all leads up to a song about reminiscing about a prickly ex-girlfriend while listening to some records. The song is short but that makes its impact all the more remarkable.