Search - Mess Up The Mess :: You Remind Me Of Summer Vacation

Have you ever wondered what it would have been like if the Algonquin Roundtable had put out indie rock seven-inches instead of writing for the New Yorker? Well wonder no more: Mess up the Mess delivers 14 acid-soaked gems on their debut album You Remind Me of Summer Vacation . Mess up the Mess never forget that the personal is political, and boy oh boy, this time it's personal for real! Whether plotting revenge by proxy [(The Week After) My Week at the Ashram], lamenting the inability to come up with a timely riposte (Esprit de l'Escalier), using personality typing to weed out potential partners [(You're Not My) Myers-Briggs Type], or wishing people would just go away (most of the other songs) or get crushed by a ton of bricks (Ton of Bricks) this group is tuned into the mess that is the modern condition. However, instead of messing it up by burning down every ex-urban subdivision, taking a baseball bat to every gentrifier's SUV, or placing voodoo curses on every neo-con, they perform upbeat songs: Songs about wanting people to go away, or people telling you to go away, or people basically being jerks a lot of the time. It's the truth, and it's a mess. But least you can dance to it and, unlike arson, it's not against the law...yet. Elizabeth's acerbic lyrics and melodic basslines, Jeanni's explosive keyboards and exuberant vocals along with Matt's layers of feedback, distortion, and bursts of jangly guitar-y brightness insure that whole affair doesn't sound like too much of a downer. And if anybody tries to start any trouble, Mistress Julie, on drums, has their back(beat.) Likened to such disparate acts as The Go-Go's, The Clean, The B-52's and any Riot Grrrl band you care to mention, clearly no one can categorize Mess up the Mess' unique sound, but it doesn't stop them from trying.