Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head–Glistening Pleasure
Every reviewer that talks about this Seattle band begins by admitting that they first listened because they were intrigued by the band’s name. Add me to that list. Every reviewer then says they were drawn in, however, because the band (surprisingly) doesn’t suck and is in fact fun as hell. Add me to that list too.
NPSH’s new album “Glistening Pleasure” (which I gotta think amounts to an admission that they are themselves a guilty listening pleasure) won’t make many year end lists, admittedly, but it’s better than a lot of similar albums out there that have gotten much more press. (I’m looking at you, CSS.) It’s electro-something-or-other, and reminds one of The Faint, a bit, minus the self-seriousness and even at moments Franz Ferdinand, without the sophistication. It falls in the category of mix tape source material, in my opinion: I probably won’t sit down and listen to the whole thing much, but I’ll pepper some mixes with “Iceage Babeland” or “Me + Yr Daughter.”
Leave it to me to find something serious in something like this, but I do wonder at what point it becomes ok to appropriate someone’s name or features in a product or band name and at what point it goes too far. Can I finally start my band “Saul Kripke and the Rigid Designators?” Must I worry about that hot young act, “Robert Howell’s Left Nipple?” I don’t know how Miss Portman feels, but the whole thing makes me nervous. Better listen to some electro-irony.
Iceage Babeland.mp3
Mouth Full of Bones.mp3