Little Hits

The Rooftop Vigilantes - Oscar Want 7″

From the 2008 CD Carrot Atlas, Wooden Man Records.

A recent night out at one of Lawrence’s finest establishments found me gazing stageward upon three unassuming young men (with an equally unassuming young lady tucked away behind a Farfisa) who were said to be “good” by mutual friends.  Presently, these nascent sots commenced flailing about in a most ungainly fashion, creating a din that, while interesting, had me wondering exactly what the hell distinguished them from any number of neo-Killed By Death bands that seem to be breeding like rabbits across our great land, occasionally releasing a 45 of interest.

Gradually I began picking out elements that made it seem something interesting was afoot.  An ear-opening chord progression here, a catchy chorus there.  As their set progressed, the songs seemed more assured, and the vocals came up in the mix, revealing an admirable sense of twisted-heart melody.  Eventually they began to remind me of Sorry Ma-era Replacements (complete with a fair amount of mike-stand abuse and other buffoonery), albeit with chord changes more derived from the Beatles than the Stones.  So basically, they sounded kinda like Flop.  This feeling was given additional credence by the set closer, a swift cover of “Can’t Hardly Wait.”

Sad, decrepit old fossil that I am, I was embarrassed to learn that this combo had already released a CD on Wooden Man Records.  Where the hell have I been?  Zach (guitar, bass) handed a copy over as we drank shots and he and Oscar (bass, guitar) went on and on about the Kinks.  Took it home.  Love it.  Inscrutable song titles are neither here nor there, but packing 16 songs into 28 minutes?  Well you know how we feel about that sort of thing. Turns out this idiotic punk rock thing is still viable.

I’m not sure if this is the best song on the CD.  But shit, it’s 2:30 in the morning, and Kit’s in bed, and Mickey’s asleep on the sofa, and it’s all I can do not to bounce around the living room and wake the whole damn house up, for which there would be dire fucking consequences.  The Rooftop Vigilantes, man.  Zach, Oscar, Hannah, Sean. Thanks.  I mean it.

-Jon Harrison