In this age of file-sharing and do-it-yourself promos... woah, man, I just got the craziest feeling of déjà vu. No, seriously, I've got a real glitch-in-the-matrix thing going on here; I feel like I've been here before, reviewing this CD before, in this exact manner. Hmmm, Fruit Bats... I think Bowers once told me they were "pleasant-is-the-new-subversive," but just who knows what that bent lunatic is ever on about?
Well, let's run through the checklist on opening track, "Rainbow Sign". You got your folky-picked acoustic guitar riff, check. Your twangy, even though the singer is not from the South, vocals, check. By the end of the song the coffeehouse strumming is overtaken by plunky vibraphone and digitized percussion, check. So good have I gotten at this game, I can hide the liner notes, put on my pyramid hat, and figure out that Sub Pop is on the contract and Brian Deck is on the switches, giving the proceedings that Sleepy Hollow sound he specializes in.
Wait a second, Sleepy Hollow, hollow, Holopaw! Mouthfuls is so similar to the eponymous release from this band's Gainesville-based label-cousins, they're harder to tell apart than Mary Kate and Ashley. Indie-folk with a slight taste for what some cultures would consider experimental (keyboards, machines, and the like), Fruit Bats sound like they've been cheating over Holopaw's shoulder on SAT day, right down to a lyrical obsession with Niagara Falls (Canada-side, I'm assuming). All of which you'd know I consider to be a considerably good thing, if you've been a good Forker and printed out my Holopaw review for your nightstand.
Batman Eric Johnson has got a good ear for a classic melody, has overcome his fear of occasionally sounding like the Grateful Dead, and is willing to let Deck toss in enough gizmos to keep songs like "A Bit of Wind" (backwards guitars, horns) and "Track Rabbits" (mellotron, outer space "La"-ing) from getting too evening-dull. Coming off their nostalgia-high debut, Echolocation, Fruit Bats seem to be further embracing modernity and sounding great doing it, even getting a little E6-poppy on "Magic Hour", which sounds like Beulah after laying off the horn section, or "Union Blanket", Olivia Tremor Control on an overdub diet, plus a hip-slap beat.
And yet the rerun feeling pervades the entire album; admittedly unfair given that even our shiny new global economy could not allow Fruit Bats to rip off Holopaw this quickly. And besides, Fruit Bats even beat Holopaw to the punch; Echolocation was also produced by Deck, way back in 2000. In fact, it could be said that Holopaw actually stole their show from these guys, if a person was so inclined to make those kinds of assumptions. The question is: if I'd heard Mouthfuls before hearing Holopaw's record, would it have scored the 8 instead? And I think I can safely say "no" to that, since the Fruit Bats are lacking in their labelmates' sense of when to get out of a song-- too much of this record's second half celebrates meandering, like the interminable "Lazy Eye" and the two-line-mantra "Slipping Through the Sensors".
Still, never have I been able to make a stronger RIYL about a band, and many flaunters of plaid shirts would appreciate the delicate girl-harmonies and banjo of "Seaweed" or slow-motion environmentalism of "The Little Acorn". I'm certainly not saying I don't want to drink a glass of red wine to it, but let purveyors of this musical brand take note that it's starting to bleed together in the wash. If this post-folk stuff doesn't watch out, A Mighty Wind II is gonna end up featuring Parker Posey as a relocated Southern gal who's too drunk to finish a song live and a thinly-veiled Tweedy figure portrayed by Fred Willard.
