Forget the withering snarkiness. Forget the blasts of noisy chaos that break up the track listing on Cry a Little Rainbow, the epic 30-cut album on which "Will You Go With Me?" appears. Forget the tuba that throws down the bottom end on many the band's tunes. Forget the leonine mask the drummer dons both live and on the album's cover, transforming a cute quartet of collegiate types into the house band for The Shining. That's only part of the Cribshitter experience.
Down in the basement, the local oddball pop-rockers may spend hours figuring out how to challenge sheep-like music consumers with warped versions of popular forms. But it turns out they also have a knack for sweet, more or less straight-ahead jangling that's indistinguishable from much more sober Sixties-inspired guitar pop.
Save for some disposable, intentionally pale-faced grooving that serves as the coda of "Will You Go with Me?," there's little about this almost too-pleasant track that would cause the first-time listener to suspect that Cribshitter are having a laugh here.
Now, is that a good thing? Absolutely.
Unlike a lot of contemporary indie-pop, you can take Cribshitters' cooing on a couple levels. Yes, they're lampooning pop innocence, but they're also re-animating it with gusto. In that way, they're a lot like the Mothers of Invention, who could freak out like nobody's business on minute and do a dead-on impression of flower power pop the next.
An MP3 of the track is available in the related downloads at right. More songs by the band can by listened to on its MySpace page. Cribshitter is playing with National Beekeepers Society at a dual CD release party along with the Midwest Beat and Whatfor at The Frequency Lounge on Saturday, September 13.
MadTracks highlights and provides MP3s of songs performed by local musicians. All tracks here are provided with permission of the artist. If you are a musician based in the Madison metro area and are interested in sharing your work as a MadTrack, please send a message.
