The Zygoteens –
Sleeping With the Stereo On EP
(Timme Heie Humme)

Four cuts of absolutely perfect pocket-rocket pop-punk/power-pop blastage from these fresh young fellas outta… I dunno.. some place in Germany? Nope, Milwaukee apparently.

Equal parts Look-Out Recs (fizz and easy melody), Exploding Hearts (heart-on-sleeve confessional oomph, Heartbreakers boogie) and Supersuckers/Teengenerate/early Hives etc etc(velocity / plain-fuckin’-GOINGFORIT-ness), it sounds like maybe they recorded this cheaply and turned in a master with all the levels pushed up too high, prompting some snotty functionary at some stage in the production process to cut all the tops and bottoms off, leaving things sounding all muffled and flubby where they should be comin’ on all “Guitar Romantic”/”Jet Generation”.

But you can’t stop the rock so the light shines through! “WE WERE CHEWING BUBBBLEGUM / AND ACTIN’ REALLY DUMB,” Zygoteens yell through the murk on “Sleeping With The Stereo On”, and you’ll be hard pressed not to answer with a fist-raised “YEAH!”. Funny how as a concept/substance, actual bubblegum is about the foulest thing I can imagine, but when used as a signifier of a certain set of aesthetic values in pop records, it never fails. Plus I just read the lyrics sheet and the last line of that song (as in, repeat ‘til close) is “Living in a world of pizza tonight”. Word.

I hope the time never comes when I don’t love stuff like this. However many records that sound like this I might own, it will never be enough. I will always want to listen to another one straight away. Great full colour cartoon artwork here too, nice thick vinyl, limited to 400 if yr into that sort of thing.

Damned if I can think of what else to say here, except that it is difficult to sit still in front of the computer whilst this music is playing… instead it is calling upon me to leap up and see how long you can touch the ceiling for, to pound on the walls, try to do a backflip for the first time in fifteen years and see how that ends up (ouch). This music does not allow for inaction, damn it! Get up! Review ends here.

http://www.myspace.com/thezygoteens
http://www.myspace.com/timmeheiehummerrecords

Labels: singles reviews, The Zygoteens