Band of the Week: Calypso

For fans of: Black Lips, Spoon, The Strokes, Television (and great 70’s punk in general)

The world is a dangerous place, filled with shit music everywhere and anywhere you turn. Sometimes, even the indie world can’t escape the mundane. You must therefore be vigilant, and guard your ears with good music at all times.

Enter Calypso. This Brooklyn-based band (previously known as Blonde Acid Cult) has a knack of creating songs that really get under your skin. Their debut EP, Teen Age, is composed of four killer songs: not melancholy, not pensive, just really a potent dose of excellent guitar-fueled lo-fi don’t-give-a-fuck sound that will make your bloodstream vibrate even while you’re sober.

The music hits you hard, it’s loud, unapologetic and relentless, and you’ll double take when you pay attention to the lyrics, especially in EP opener “Casually Sad Mercedes”. “I will spoon feed you Chuck Berry, but if you won’t try, I won’t see”. The songs are screaming with the frustration of the feeling of helplessness which ALL of us have experienced when other people cannot grasp good music. For most of us, music is the most important thing in our lives, and yet we are forced to be surrounded by people with awful taste, reveling in tripe on the radio and g-d awful products of the Disney Channel.

“Son of a Gun” is casually repetitive, emulating the grunge sound which the band cites as an influence.

“Oh Santiago” reminds me why I love Black Lips so much, and why all the best bands come from NY.

“Post 100 Pills” is urgent and fun, like an unholy union of Beach Boys and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

This EP gives you a chance to strengthen your grip on the ever slim pickings that is good music. Hold on to it, because nobody else will ever understand.

Calypso- Casually Sad Mercedes [mp3, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!]
I love the delivery of the line: “then you fucked my skull”. This song is extraordinary to the nth degree. I can tell that they will deliver a killer live show, just by hearing this song.

buy the EP HERE
visit the band on MYSPACE

BONUS:
here's a track from their days under a slightly more interesting moniker...they seem to have adopted the track title as their band name.

Blonde Acid Cult - Calypso [mp3]
awesome, right?