Every now and then a band appears as if out of nowhere and shoves a record in your face that cannot be ignored. ‘Wooden Teeth,’ the debut release from Florida’s Mouse Fire is one such example of this. It’s like Minus The Bear have gone back in time to the days of Highly Refined Pirates/Menos El Oso and merged bygone ideas with No Knife and Cursive with a little secret ingredient that I can’t put my finger on… the result is quite spectacular to say the least.
The combination of riffage, well-structured piano parts and pure quirky groove provides the perfect backing for Jake Snider/Tim Kasher-style vocals that lift the songs from great, into fan-bloody-tastic classic territory. The instruments take it in turns to stand out individually throughout the album and both the musicianship and vocal melodies are simply stupefying.
‘To Celebrate A Suicide’ would fit very comfortably in amongst the tracks on ‘Highly Refined Pirates.’ Now, usually I would pull a band apart for lack of originality, but this is the only moment on the album where influence threatens to become cover, and the track comes across almost as a private thankyou from one very talented band to another.
Both the piano-led ‘Feel Good Drag’ and schizophrenic ‘Fear the Worst’ stand tall as early favourites, but every track on display here begs for further attention. The diversity and ingenuity of the album as a whole suggests a potential future of recognition from both press and fans alike. Hell, if anyone deserves a break then these guys do. I guess though that only time, patience and a bucket load of touring will tell. If you’re a fan of any of the aforementioned bands then give this a go and lets keep our fingers crossed that they find their way over to our side of the pond sometime in the near future.
Rich Rowe