Need New Body

This Philly sextet seems intent on putting some punky party fun back into art rock (and yes, it can be fun, just ask the Boredoms), and their calls to frolic quite often prove irresistible, most successfully occurring in the form of lopsided, organ-driven, primordial ooze trance rockers (or, as they perhaps more accurately like to call such songs as "Tittiepop" and "Bananas and Dragons," "Oompa Loompa funk"). But while the record's skit format irreverence does have its moments (especially the shambling faux-hepcat rant in distress on "20$SH"), this album seems too much like one element of a spectacle, needing total immersion and wide-eyed goofy participation on the listener's part in order not to end up as smart-ass detached as the dreaded likes of Zappa at his smarmiest. The only way to experience that, of course, is to see this freak show live, so if you can catch NNB on tour with the Owls, I assure you that it'll all make sense. Almost.