Mittens on Strings – Let’s Go To Baba’s – Album Review

If I had to describe the latest Mittens on Strings release, Let’s Go to Baba’s, in only a single word, that word would be the following: familiar. For those who think such a common and dull description belies a lack of enthusiasm, think again. Baba’s, as I’ll call it for the remainder of this review, is awesomely familiar. The follow up to 2007s It Is Become Disaffect Toward the Present World, Look Up the Sky!! (what is it with these guys and their album titles?),  Baba’s would have fit in perfectly with the other selections in my travelling cassette tape case, a tan brief-case like box of wonder that contained what I look back upon and still think is the best collection of that era’s easy-alt heroes one could assemble.

A little folk here, a little cinematic indie there, with plenty of sly hat-tips to generational precursors. For every time you think of Queen, you’ll remember Lotion or Chicago-style post-rock.  By and large, the band’s sound is muted,  staying in the background behind the vocals of frontman Alex Preston. This isn’t an unusual strategy for rock bands, though what makes the choice head-turning is that Preston himself isn’t a slap-you-upside-the-head-and-take-command style singer; rather, he’s pretty muted himself, and to get the genius inherent in the move requires you pay attention to subtle changes. This isn’t an album I listen to in my car – a deafening Jeep that would turn even the most perfectly recorded artifact into lo-fi crap. Instead, this is a good one for when you want to listen and listen good, headphones optional but helpful, as long as you pay attention as you would to the kind of book that demands a close read in order to glean the true beauty.

Give it such a listen, and song after song will reward you. Album opener “M2 (Big Black Car)” is an apt introduction to Preston’s vocals, which fall somewhere on a continuum between Michael Stipe and Fred Schneider, while “Big Brother” gives you a shoves worth of Neil Young paired with a tasty smooch from a blissed out Jackson Browne. The references keep coming as the album plays on, with “Fireball’s Revenge” sounding like Luna with a secret smirk, while album closer “Vacation” is a swinging yet mellow jaunt, the kind of song Jimmy Buffett might sing right after getting out of bed, before his morning coffee, if Paleface was his BFF and he’d been listening to a lot of mid-career Cracker b-sides.

On “Lou Reed Says,” the influence is even more directly acknowledged. Quite to similar in spirit to The Modern Electric’s “David Bowie (Save Us All),” Mittens on Strings provide a double homage, performing a song about a rock icon while sounding like that same rock icon. Just as The Modern Electric’s Garrett Komyati laudably apes the thin white duke, Preston’s vocals naturally assimilate to the inflections and affectations that made Reed the unique and beloved figure he is today.

Lyrically deft, most of the tracks on Baba’s proceed in a narrative manner, telling stories equal parts earnest and ironic. Perhaps the best example of this – and certainly the best example of the bands welcome 90s vibe – is “Flaming Pig.” Between notions of competitive and silly consumption, Mittens on Strings have crafted a song with numerous stylistic changes packed into a short span of time, a hoe-down at times on speed, at other times on quaaludes.

The stylistic diversity of “Flaming Pig” is only one of many moments on Baba’s where the bands chops are on display (perhaps the best moment is the anxious peak of “La Middle Ages”). As mentioned previously, the band often takes a backseat to the vocals on the album, and when you hear how frequently good the instrumentals can be, you realize what a bold decision that is. Unlike most bands today that simply load up the sound, piling track after track of guitar and feedback and samples into a distortion sandwich that masks whatever talent the band in question has to work with, Mittens on Strings is content to be merely good at what they do without feeling the need to impress. Doing so, to me, is impressive enough.

Let’s Go To Baba’s was released on Tuesday, October 6th, on Soungs, and is available digitally via the pay-what-you-want model at www.soungs.org.

Mittens on Strings – Big Brother

Mittens on Strings – La Middle Ages