Trenchcoat Club - Hitch Your Station Wagon to a Star
(Caveat Emptor)
John and Travis of the Trenchcoat Club have a good time making their music,
and I applaud this, but in this situation, I simply don't have a good time
listening to it. Hitch Your Station Wagon to a Star is an
indie-pop-duo record full of melodies and instrumentations that sound
unfinished, aren't very well performed, or just don't gel. It's more like a
very long demo than a complete, cohesive album. After reading their
extensive liner notes, John and Travis seem like fun guys with textbook
"good indie rock" taste (artists namedropped: Morrissey, Pixies, Dinosaur
Jr., Pavement, They Might Be Giants, among others), but their musical
output, sadly, just doesn't match up.
It isn't that there's nothing to like about the album. "Monday Was a
Soundgarden Song" is a decent, catchy sample-and-synth driven pop tune.
"Ballad for Mr. T" gets points for being about Mr. T, and it's probably the
most memorable song on the album for this reason. The mellow pop chorus of
"Mr. T, Mr. T, pity a fool for me," followed by some spoken word samples
from the T himself, is probably the best part of the record; I'm amazed that
humorous references to this cultural icon still don't get tiresome. And
"Young Republicans in Love" is the kind of geek-pop song that people who
love They Might Be Giants usually write, and I personally identify with
those people.
But if you're like me, then you're probably about as tired of seeing the
word "pop" in this review as I am with these formulas, after they've been
recycled enough times over a 55 minute album. There isn't enough charm or
originality to this to make up for the lack of finesse or performing talent.
Sorry, guys; I've simply heard better.
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