Refrigerator / Bottles Of Make Up

Shrimper

Bottles of Make Up, the latest from Refrigerator, was recorded in Shrimper CEO Dennis Callaci's living room over a weekend in August, 2006. The album features twelve originals with Franklin Bruno (Nothing Painted Blue, The Mountain Goats) on piano.   While the quartet's previous record, Upstairs in Your Room, squealed and squalled through two-minute rock workouts in the style of the group's early years, their newest has no electric instrumentation at all. Cohesive both musically and thematically, Bottles of Make Up is far from lo-fi / no-fi affectation. There is no multi-tracked, muddled mix to get lost in: all the songs were lovingly recorded directly onto two-inch analog tape. With doffs of the cap to artists such as A.P. Carter, Tim Buckley, Nina Simone, Need New Body and Elton John, the record lovingly traverses the same perverse gamut.   Still, Refrigerator avoids the prog leanings of Buckley or the Kiki Dee action of John. Instead, Bottles of Make Up plays like the quieter moments of their first record rendered on a less crowded canvas. The band will be doing "guerrilla" shows at bowling alleys and donut shops with Kimya Dawson in early 2007, later joining Shrimper label-mate Simon Joyner on a small jaunt up the coast. 

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