The Ants' Stories About Killing is melodic enough to be enjoyable, yet jarring enough to be interesting. The vocal stylings of the band, as well as their song structures, play like a prog-rock combination of Randy Newman and the Lovin' Spoonful.
Despite one's inclination to lump the Ants in with the jam-band crowd, their local peers are more accurately bands like Mr. Marco's V7, the Brannock Device, or Wild Chipmunk & the Cuddly Poos -- bands that are weird and fun and more than a little influenced by the odd time signatures of the Minutemen.
Stories About Killing is the sort of album that is timeless. While it came out just this past month, the '70s rock weirdness makes it familiar, while at the same time, it's fun and new. The vocals, while a little grating at times, still manage to stay on-key enough to keep the listen involved, and it all pays off on the epic closing track, "Dune," (which Leslie Kay told us about several weeks ago), featuring backing vocals from Drakkar Sauna, as well as some mellowing female vocals from Ann Dean and Sue Phillips.
"Dune" is the track that the entire album leads to, taking the novelty of opening track "Bear Encounter," and flipping it into a group sing-along, ending the album with a sense of the Ants' ideas being fully realized.
Bonus points go to the band for releasing this on LP, with a CD inside if you want to listen to it in your car, or rip it to your iPod. The cover art by Juli Kangas looks like a twisted children's book, and has to be seen at 12" by 12" to really be appreciated.
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The album is now available from the Ants website: http://www.killtheants.com/sto...
$10 PPD for the 12" vinyl + CD.
Or at Lovegarden in Lawrence.
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