The Best 10 Minutes

Let's go back. Way back. We're going back to the summer of 2007. It was my second music festival experience, and it was a life-changing weekend. Instead of rehashing lots of old memories (you guys are already sick of hearing about Lollapalooza 2010 - why would you want to hear about Lolla '07 again?), I'm going to talk about 10 minutes of this festival that blew my mind.

!!!, Chk Chk Chk, Bam Bam Bam (or Jizz Jizz Jizz, as their bass player insisted to me in an interview when I asked him his favorite moniker for the band) is a ridiculous band in so many ways. I've written about them before on this blog, but let's talk about the past for a second.

Tonight, as I'm getting ready to go out on a Friday night, and reminded of !!! because I read Pitchfork's review of their new album today, I threw them on. I played a few of their new songs, but as always, I had to go back to Myth Takes. It was an album that stayed in my car stereo for an ENTIRE SUMMER.

So by the time I got to Chicago in 2007, and saw Nic Offer in person, I was pretty much pumped.

The first two songs they played were the first two songs off Myth Takes. I had to leave behind my friends, who were too exhausted to stand for the set. I made my way to a back corner, and moved my body like I was trying to shake off a billion microscopic cockroaches. So did the rest of the crowd. "Myth Takes" went straight into "All My Heroes Are Weirdos," and I truly cannot imagine too many other 10 minute periods in my life that felt as exhilaratingly vivacious as that one-two punch. Nic Offer came into the crowd, grabbing his balls Michael Jackson-style. His dance moves looked like my gay 12-year-old cousin's (if I had one of those). It was amazing!

I saw them two years later at the Pitchfork festival. It wasn't the same. It's ok though. I had my 10 minutes of !!! bliss, and I'll never forget that. Dancing around my room to Myth Takes, I relive the moment every few months.

!!! - Strange Weather, Isn't It?

!!! is the Phish of the nightclub scene, jamming mercilessly on dance grooves that seem to go on forever. Instead of making an album for hippie kids lighting up bongs in spacious fields, the band has crafted one for those who prefer dusk-to-dawn raves in dimly lit basements. Frontman Nic Offer likes to joke that he can leave band practice for a couple hours, returning only to find everyone in the same spot as when he left—jamming.

For Stranger Weather, Isn’t It?, the Brooklyn-based band, who has recorded everywhere from Nashville to Sacramento, took on Berlin. With Brian Eno and all-night techno clubs as inspirations, !!! built an album where layer upon layer produces a slick, club-like feel. The bass pops in all the right places, other-worldy synthesizer effects swoop atop the pulsing disco rhythm, and Offer sticks with iniquitous half-sung, half-spoken lyrics, like “Jamie, my intentions are bass.”

On their fourth album, the four members of !!!—pronounced “chk chk chk” or as any three consecutive syllables—champion Talking Heads and the danceable bounce of the ’70s without making it sounding like a throwback. The chorus of album opener, “AM/FM,” contains the kind of echoing vocals that recall quintessential Vogue-era Madonna, and the “don’t stop” refrain of “The Hammer” is the perfect hooky reminder that fatigue is not an excuse to quit dancing.

Stranger Weather flows nicely, keeping a consistent pace from start to finish. Yet nothing stands out like their noteworthy grooves from 2007’s Myth Takes, where “All My Heroes Are Weirdos” explodes with vibrancy, and the title track gains momentum with spaghetti western guitar licks. This time through, !!! remembered to bring the party, but they forgot the favors that fans have come to expect—grooves that make the body explode into dance spasms.