Spain Colored Orange and La Snacks


Spain Colored Orange “Sneaky Like A Villain”
Opening with a lovely harmony-filled intro, The Spain Colored Orange are a Houston Texas group with an affection for all kinds of music from The Beatles to Radiohead. Lead by trumpet player Eric Jackson, and lead singer Gilbert Alfaro, “Who Am I?” is psyche pop with jazz touches here and there and the tone shifts around making it impossible to pigeonhole the band, but it does remind me of Camper Van Beethoven. “Hide” is lead by synths, beats and Gilbert’s sleepy vocal. Pop fans will enjoy the highlight tune “Cheap Thrills” – full of playful piano and so many melodic changes, you’d swear it’s Bryan Scary. The band is fearless, and it’s quirky shifts in tone and tempo can be very challenging to sit through. Buried through this are some hooks, like “Better Left Alone” is like synth and horn heavy High Llamas. Musical nods to XTC are on “Birds and Bees” and Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd on “Uh, Oh Trouble” each with a horn solo. But as often as it succeeds, it also fails to salvage songs that cannot decide where to go like “You Think You Know” and the dreadful “Better Left Alone.” I would recommend this to diehard psyche-pop fans who are into a musical melange. Very much like a fried egg and peanut butter sandwich, it’s definitely an acquired taste.

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La Snacks “New Fangled” EP

Another Texas band that has a laid back indie pop style. They have been compared to such indie luminaries as Archers of Loaf, The Hold Steady and Pavement. The opener “Kristin Was A Meterorologist” is a like Lou Reed fronting for The Cure, with strange lyrics about Neville Chamberlain and Nazi appeasment. There is more political wierdness with “Jackson 88” but the band keeps the beat going and at least the songs are likeable here. Fans of Weezer may enjoy the plodding “Devil has left The Building,” and pleasing “Oil and Water.” Frontman Robert Segovia’s off key vocals barely keep the whole thing together, but it works. This collection of warped, but tuneful indie rock will remind you of late ’90s college radio for sure.

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