#12: The Self-Righteous Brothers>In Loving Memory Of ... >Googly eyes!

Artist : The Self Righteous Brothers
Album : In Loving Memory Of... (1st Domestic LP)
Release : 06.26.07
Year Founded : 2003
Label Name : Black & Greene Records
Catalog # : 005
Packaging Type : Single-Disc Jewel Case
Members : Jake Hall, Max Koepke, Justin McLean
Runtime : 40:17
Area Tour Dates : 07.19.07 @ PA's Lounge, Boston
Sound Season :
iTunes Worthy Tracks : Floyd, Lee Torsee, Alan Watts, Graduated Cylinder, Concerto in Drop D
Sounds Like : Stephen Malkmus Face the Truth
Rating : A-


The Self Righteous Brothers come out of left field with nothing preceding them — no PR blast, no sticker on the album telling you they are the best thing since The Beatles, no endorsement from indie rock stars or outcasts. Nothing. Nothing except a chuckle-to-yourself band name and a picture of the band in head costumes reminiscent of any of the Sid & Marty Krofft shows.

My extensive research (and by 'extensive research' I mean I made this up) indicates that they are a bunch of twenty-something Jimmy Buffett liking high school dropouts from the Boston area, and not these forty-something Jimmy Buffett worshipping cover creeps.

These musically-inclined bastard children of R. Crumb's "Mr. Natural" and Gilbert Shelton's "The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers" are best on jams like "Lee Torsee," which features strained and shouting vocals that exude a faint whiff of J Mascis. But the song has a damn lot of character, what with the funky bassline and the spasmodic guitar solo and all-out freak out with horn section during the song's latter half.

The rest of the songs are both internally and externally diverse as well. The trio seem to write a full song amongst themselves, then write another song with their backing band and then marry the songs together in a kind of Frankensteinian I'm-enraged-because-I'm-not-a-whole-man-and-not-because-I'm-really-a-monster kind of thing. Take for instance the transformation of "Diana" from a soulful slow jam into a harmonic pop song which melts into "Concerto in Drop D" as a hyper indie-pop thrasher and finally into a mobius strip of bass and lilting guitars bringing to mind one of the more meditative Modest Mouse songs.

With so many bands nowadays sounding so much like everyone else, In Loving Memory Of... has a sort of "anything goes" attitude that doesn't think twice about mixing funk with ska with garage with country-twinged rock. You get the sense that these fellas have the ADD, but they're taking their medication semi-regularly enough that you don't need to grab them by the shoulders and give them a good shake to get them to focus.

The Self Righteous Brothers are capable musicians (they make that immediately clear on the instrumental opener "Floyd") having fun and not taking themselves too seriously, as is so often the case these days (emo-goth-hipsters, I'm looking at you). They even have a video for "Alan Watts" that is a claymation of miniature people stabbing eachother with stuff. They may be a little funny and a little weird, but they are not a joke band. They're just different — in a good way.