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Boo And Boo Too

Boo And Boo Too EP

Written by: PP on 07/04/2008 14:59:26

Believe it or not, I\'m not kidding when I\'m writing about a band who calls themselves Boo And Boo Too. That really is their name, which is a rather laughable, but yet somehow enjoyable name for their band, and it manages to nicely sum up the worry-free, overjoyed feeling you get from listening to their music. The promo sheet describes it as noise-obsessed, dark, but ultimately poppy, but I\'m having trouble seeing where the description comes from. You can hardly call \"Boo And Boo Too EP\" dark, considering it borrows from the joyous elements presented by bands like The Strokes, I Am Bones and even Arctic Monkeys to an extent to create buzzing garage rock easily capable of contesting the genre heavyweights.

Remember how The Strokes sounded like on both their debut EP \"The Modern Age\" and album \"Is This It\"? \"David Turns A Mystic\" might just become your favorite track this month if you were a fan of those releases. Nuances of the high-toned, simplistic guitar sound from songs like \"Soma\" or \"Is This It\" can be heard all across the song, although overall it is a somewhat heavier and less-produced effort. The vocalist sounds distorted but full of energy, giving the song a positive up-beat feel. \"Everyday Saw You In Egypt\" has that same vibe, although the vocalist sounds more desperate here. The guitars are still borrowing from early The Strokes, but later Sonic Youth material can be heard in bits and pieces too. The chorus is again catchy and singalongable, but not to the extreme; The songwriting is kept at a level where the pop element isn\'t as dominant on the record as the garage rock element, even if \"You Are A Tide\" begs to differ with it\'s cleaner sound.

\"Couch On Fire\", the last track on the EP, last over six minutes, at first fools you thinking that you\'ll hear another six minutes of early The Strokes material. But one minute into the song, the tempo is halved in what could be called an indie rock breakdown (yes, I just invented that term), morphing the song into a chilled out, relaxed mood for the next few minutes. The garage-distortion is still there and the vocalist still sounds as if he\'s just barely able to restrain his voice from bursting into a scream, helping to fortify the loose-tight contrast that he and the instruments have across the EP. The song finishes off with some sonic experimentation in the vein of Sonic Youth, but frankly the latter did it better and the song fails to live up to the rest of the EP.

All in all, Boo And Boo Too sounds much like I imagine The Strokes sounding like on their early demos before they had access to a better budget and subsequently a real recording studio. The songwriting is top notch on almost every song on the EP, promising great things for the band\'s future. Throw the band into a real studio with a good producer and you might just have the next wave of indie flavored garage rock overtaking the radio waves world wide. You heard it here first.

Download: David Turns A Mystic
For the fans of: The Strokes, I Am Bones, Sonic Youth, The Hives
Listen: Myspace

Release date 22.05.2007
Ironpaw Records