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It's difficult to describe Edie Sedgwick without using the word "strange." No, we're not talking about the actress who starred in Andy Warhol's short films in the 1960s and died of ethanol intoxication. We're talking about Antelope vocalist Justin Moyer's gender-bending side project, which recently released its third full-length, Things Are Getting Sinister And Sinisterer, on Dischord Records.
At first, we were a little wary of the album. Back in March of 2007, we gave Antelope's last record, Reflector, low marks for its repetitive "melody vs. repetition" theme and inconsistent songwriting. Listening to Things Are Getting Sinister And Sinisterer is a completely different experience. Like all good side projects, Edie Sedgwick and Antelope are not alike. The music retains Antelope's stripped-down quality, yet there's something exciting about the random noises and instrumentation that get tossed around throughout the album. Instead of repetitive, the songs come across as playful and downright danceable. Moyer describes Edie Sedgwick in a press release as "Fela Kuti meets Screaming Jay Hawkins meets the Ol’ Dirty Bastard at a Warhol exhibition," and we'd have a hard time coming up with a better description than that.
The album, which was produced by Ian MacKaye and Moyer, at times sounds a little too much like other Dischord recordings, with excessive emphasis placed on the rhythm section. But Moyer — with help from members of the bands Soccer Team, Evens, the Aquarium and Medications — keeps things fresh. Even at times when the music starts to sag under its own inventiveness, Moyer's lyrics consistently entertain. Each track is hilariously dedicated to bits and pieces of pop culture, past and present. When Moyer sings the chorus to "Angelina Jolie" — "Working on a baby/Let's go get a baby/Black baby" — over brooding New Wave synths, it's hard not to laugh. On the drum-and-bass heavy track "Mary-Kate Olsen," Moyer elaborates on the subject of anorexia at length and thinks about attacking Dave Coulier.
Things Are Getting Sinister And Sinisterer is a strange album, but that's why we love it so much. If you can't occasionally poke fun at everything that's wrong or bizarre in the world, you might as well dig yourself a hole and give up.
Things Are Getting Sinister And Sinisterer is only available as a 12" (colored) Vinyl + MP3 or as a digital album on Dischord Records' Web site.
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