The voices and songwriting styles of Built to Spill's Doug Martsch and Beat Happening's Calvin Johnson couldn't be much more different, and almost every song on their first collaboration is a championship kung-fu battle for territory.
If you pass this one up, I'll tell your friends & they will laugh at you. It's that good. I luv Don't touch my bikini in a way that is probably not legal.
This crystalizes the lo-fi sound as well as anything Calvin Johnson did with Beat Happening or any of the other greats of the sub-genre like Sebadoh. This album is pretty great, but if you only want one or two start with "On A Tip" or "Snowfall"
this album is a "Big Rock Candy Mountain", and has been one of my favorites for going on 13 years now! Stellar madness!
Yes, yes... funny songs on this album... good stuff... But also there's a few serious songs that are outstanding examples of how indie rock can really pull itself up and mean something. ON A TIP is a short guitar work out with some amazing singing and playing between Doug and Calvin... very heartfelt and loose... and then the slow burn of I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S TRUE has Calvin intoning about a "stone fox tubing down the river Styx" and it ends like a car crash. If you've ever wondered about K Records or have ever enjoyed Doug or Calvin's other projects, I'd suggest picking this up.
"Bikini" is good, but "Snowfall" is the don't miss song on this album. The interplay between Calvin and Doug's interweaving melodies on that song is beautiful.
I 2nd dat. "Don't Touch My Bikini" is a gem of a song.
This is a fun album. That is, if you like a tone-deaf baritone:) I recommend "don't touch my bikini" (it's just as funny as it sounds) and "will work for food". Also funny: "big rock candy mountain".
