[Dizzy Storm]

couple of nice album/live reviews on the forthcoming SKELETONS

On our last excursion to Good Records, our friend C.J. convinced us to buy Skeletons and The Kings Of All Cities' Lucas by describing it as "Albert Ayler meets Prince." The Skeletons collective (who released Git in 2005) have also drawn comparisons to Can, Sonic Youth, and Boyz II Men (seriously). The LP cover is about the ugliest thing I've ever seen, and it comes pressed on a hideous gray vinyl. All that aside, we've listened to this, the disjointed, beautiful album opener, maybe 100 times over the last couple of days (give or take). It sort of meanders aimlessly along for the first 2 minutes, but all of those seemingly ridiculous comparisons begin to make sense after that. gorillavsbear...


i saw Skeletons for the first time a few weeks ago. Big smiles, big hair, big glasses, big songs. When they began playing, it sounded nothing like the record. Live, Skeletons (4 of them) are the hero of Bonaroo, and then a tropicalia version of the Locust, and then Sun Ra and Orthrelm and Phish and Animal Collective and Tzadik and Ipecac all at once...indyweeklyblogs.com

"Lucas" is a concept album of sorts about a phantasmagorical land ruled by a king who fixes the crooked smiles of his subjects – but that's not important right now. What you need to know is that Brooklyn-based Skeletons leader Matt Mehlan and his co-conspirators the Kings of All Cities have assembled a very fine orchestrated left-field technicolour pop album. Instead of losing the run of itself in such an ambitious pursuit (like the sometimes claustrophobically cloying arrangements of Sufjan Stevens) "Lucas" is founded on the infectious Valhallic voodoo grooves of Moondog with traces of Sun Ra's skronk action and captures both the joyous communal campfire vibe of Animal Collective and the kaleidoscopic junkyard aesthetic of Neutral Milk Hotel. The albums centerpiece "Fake Tits" is a widescreen production with wild eyed polyrhythms and features the agreeable sentiments "It's not that hard to disappear, flush your phone down the toilet, find your way out the window, throw your wallet in the river." This album was conceived on a long drive through Midwestern America and upon surrendering to its woozy charms you'll realize that you're definitely not in Kansas anymore… junkmedia.org