Thunderbirds Are Now!

Justamustache

BY Cam LindsayPublished Jul 1, 2005

After personally writing off their debut album on their label’s website, it appears that Detroit’s Thunderbirds Are Now! are pumped about their second album — it sure as hell sounds like it. Abandoning all consciousness of their home city’s number one export (garage rock, that is), the four-piece have forged a distinct sound hinting that some young men haven’t taken their Ritalin in a while. Justamustache is a remarkable sophomore effort, especially if it’s rebounding from what they consider to be a first album that sucks. Their pace is ridiculous, especially for music that is so melodically abundant; imagine the Blood Brothers getting a blood transfusion with Devo’s jerky pop plasma and you get the picture. The rhythms of drummer Mike Durgan and bassist Martin Smith (now Howard Chang, who recently replaced Smith) are so tight that you could drop dimes on their asses and they’d bounce into space. "Cobra Feet” does a nice job of displaying this, beginning with a faux beat on the verge of happy hardcore before the band kicks in. Ryan Allen’s well-publicised effeminate vocals are no exaggeration, nor are they anything less than a fantastic weapon for such zesty pop music, like in the chant of "Eat This City.” The nicest feature of this outfit’s arsenal though has to be the subtle strokes of synth that do a nice job of making a difference without pushing the music into another sub-genre.
(Frenchkiss)

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