Why? / Rubber Traits

Anticon

With Sanddollars, Early Whitney, and now Rubber Traits, Why? has adopted the great Pavement tradition of using an album single as an excuse to merge remixes and unreleased tracks with new material. It’s especially apt considering Filter has called Elephant Eyelash (where “Rubber Traits” originally appeared) the Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain of “our modern indie times.”  Alongside the poignantly morbid pop of the title track, which couples lines like “I want to… fuck gentle on a bed of nails” with clean, Brian Wilson-like “ooh-we-oohs,” there are three new songs. The jangly gem “Dumb Hummer,” a wry take on military chic (camo-gear and street-dwarfing Humvees), is essentially an essay on living conscientiously in the overdeveloped West. The other two songs, “Pick Fights” and “Deceived,” are tidy, lyric-driven pieces that pair Yoni’s effortlessly rapped vocals with cold wit and a keen eye for detail, showing yet again that he’s always been more Dylan Thomas than Bob Dylan. The sharp wordplay and plain spoken tone are complimented beautifully by the band: multi-instrumentalist Doug McDiarmid’s discreet, tender piano work, the tasteful and distinctive work of guitarist Matt Meldon and the decidedly jazz-inflected touch of drummer Josiah Wolf. The CD also features a hilarious, faux-cheesy video for “Rubber Traits” directed by Ravi Zupa, a filmmaker who’s collaborated in the past with both Sole and Themselves. The video deftly accentuates the lyrics and actually adds something to the music, a rare feat.

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