Apples and Hand Grenades

Under normal circumstances, I loathe female singers. In my experience most of them get so caught up in developing a 20 octave range that when they get to singing they end up spewing lyrics of the "Ohhh where's my love?" variety of bullcrap. I'm sure you've heard that kind of pop music that's so unstomachable the only way to counterbalance the contrived happiness is by stabbing yourself in the face with a discount corkscrew. Well, loft those masochistic tendencies into the closet and come meet Arrah & The Ferns. It's pop to my ears, but its got the aesthetic equilibrium of a Geisha with a battle axe, intersparcing cute keyboard plinks, playful guitar riffs, and laid back drumming with bitter cursing and the occasional death threat.

Arrah & The Ferns - Emo Phillips (5 Stars)
"Oh and gee.. did you look outside? I can't believe its snowing... now i really F'in hate my life."
I love her temper tantrum near the end.

Arrah & The Ferns - science books (4 Stars)
"Should I kill you while you're sleeping? I'll give you drugs and drag you through the street."
Cute.

[Update: This CD is fantastic. If you like the above songs, don't hesitate.]

Big Big Car is another surprising find. Imagine taking a folk music apple and injecting it with a syringe of SCALDING HOT indy rock. Imagine what that would DO to THE APPLE. It would warp the FUCKING SHIT out of the apple that's what it would it would do! The same applies here.
Folk music infected with a sinister infusion of indy rock: It's juicy fruit that will rot your teeth.

Big Big Car - Oh Lets Race (5 Stars)
This song has the kind of calamitous breakdown that makes people blow up their houses with joy.

Big Big Car - Raspberry Grandpall (4 Stars)
Dynamic changes like this should require caution signs.

- Seg

Thanks to Mark for sending us the tracks! (Standard Recording Company)