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The Sounds Of Morningwood

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 20, 2006 7:08PM

2006_04_thesounds.jpgFrom time to time people accuse us of adopting a hipster stance and being difficult just because we can. Sometimes we are accused of yuppie-baiting, over-generalizing and being incapable of writing a post that doesn’t drip with condescension and/or sarcasm.

But, you see, sometimes we really do just want to have fun.

And that’s why we’re positively giddy over The Sounds and Morningwood playing at Metro tonight. Both groups play super-sugary dance-rock a la Blondie and a gajillion other pop groups, but we don’t hold that against either one for a single second. Morningwood surfaced in NYC and raised worried eyebrows when their debut’s release kept getting pushed back by their label. Usually such activity by a label is a portent of a disaster just waiting to happen. However, we had heard a pre-release copy and fell instantly in love with lead singer Chantal Claret’s (Chantal (!) Claret (!)) over the top fe-macho posturing. When she exhorts us to “take off [our] clothes” we often find ourselves standing in the middle of Best Buy with our pants puddled around our ankles.

Erm, maybe that’s the wrong image to try and convey.

The Sounds hail from the land of ABBA and we’ll be damned if we don’t think they actually write catchier tunes than Björn and company used to. This is a band that rocks, shimmies and rolls and looks damn good while doing so.

Both groups have been attacked for seeming too “pre-fabbed” or “surface” but we don’t really care what the negative nellies out there in Squaresville think. We just wanna have fun and both Morningwood and The Sounds want to help us towards our goal.

Image of The Sounds by Irene Tien