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Hel-LO!!!! According to the band's press release, this fab pop quartet outta New Zealand named themselves The Sproutts in honor of the former Guided By Voices guitarist Tobin Sprout! Ohmygosh, seeing as how I named my cat after the same wonderful songwriter, I was naturally stoked to check these guys out!
At first glance, you might expect these guys to be tweepop with such a cutesy band name as "The Sproutts" and with the band's adorable cartoon caricature on the back. But, much like Ohio's finest, these guys actually tackle a range of music styles, with some songs clocking in at 46 seconds (like the Beat Happening-esque "Darkness" which fades in and then stops abruptly), and others rocking out for a full 4 minutes and 7 seconds (like the sweet pop song "Yesterday When I Saw You"). The opening track, "Ogre Song", is fiercely rocking with an electric violin going nuts in the background, and "Eskimo" shows the band's punk rock (!!!) side. But then they show their most Tobin-esque moments on tracks like "Fantasnippet" and "Accidental Rage". There's even a track titled "Teacher of Elves", which is nice that they'd rather teach them, as GBV was more into kicking them!
This debut release is packed with 18 tracks, and there's not a bad one in the bunch! Lo-fi fun for everyone! (janice.12.05)
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