Band: Girls of the Gravitron
Release: 2010
Label: Miss Lonelyhearts Records
Comments: Once in a great while – and it sure is great – I come across a very inspirational group of music creators. Girls of the Gravitron are one of them. I got into this album on a whim, because why wouldn’t I want to explore a Memphis project that features members of the Barbaras and Magic Kids? Magnetic Mountain is not a highly polished offering; in fact, its homey and tinny sound accounts for a lot of what makes this click for me. The one song that I literally couldn’t stop listening to from the time that I heard it first is “Her Flower Opens Like Slow Moving Trail of Atom Bomb”. It makes me want to pick up a guitar and learn how to rip off Girls of the Gravitron. If only I could. It has the cheeriness of a lot of what folks might call underground pop – lots of jangle and some killer keyboard (especially at the end…thanks Will McElroy!). Cole Weintraub sings sort of like Jeffrey Novak and Calvin Johnson with a cool blend of Adam Green’s off-the-cuff delivery (listen to “Weird World” for justification of this claim) . Basically, if you love those dudes and a wide range of music styles – punk, folk, garage – you should have no problem loving this. There are 19 tunes on this one…this review would probably read more like a tiny research paper if I went into intricate detail about everything. At any rate, Magnetic Mountain is something you ought to listen to yourself rather than reading me describe what it is like to listen to. The other thing that is especially noteworthy is that these are dudes who know what they are doing. This record is almost a continuation or a confirmation of their legacies in those other bands which I’d argue puts a cherry on top of a ‘Memphis sound’ that they cultishly created. I will list some other weirdo gems that are approximately outstanding (this is tough!): “Principes of Kimberly,” “Magnetic Mountain,” “Violent Appetites,” “Come Alone,” and the finisher “1000 Yrs”. This will be your new favorite musical discovery!
