REVIEW: Muckafurgason, Tossing A Friend (Deep Elm)
- Robin Lapid
Don't ask me what Muckafurgason means, because I don't know either. It may be a fitting amalgam of any number of different words or just a jumble of sounds that somehow make sense to the ear. If that's the case, it's a fitting monicker. The band, comprised of "one Brit and two Yanks," start off their debut full-length album with Weezer-esque pop harmonies and glide effortlessly from there into any number of genres, be it country, hip-hop, or punk rock.
The music hinges on a lo-fi pop mentality with enough playfulness in style and lyrics to keep everything from turning stale. In terms of influences, Muckafurgason happily wear their hearts on their sleeves. Each song is a tongue-in-cheek tribute to anything and everything, whether it's the fuzzy Clash guitars of "Punk Rock" or the human beat-box Beck anthem about "Lunch," or a nostalgic pop song about a beloved Atari game ("Plug it into the back of my TV/ Come with me back to 1983/ Reliving my happy childhood/ With my 2600"). There are even the appropriate indie-pop culture references -- I have to admire any band that aspires to be the next "Cute Band Alert in Sassy Magazine."
Rather than make demi-god knock-offs of their favorite bands, Tossing A Friend sticks to sparse, often folk-inflected pop that's wondrously devoid of pretension. And that's the sincerest form of flattery.
