Customer Reviews

Are You Sleepy

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If I may be frank (and I may), this is my favorite cd. For a sense of where I'm coming from, the artists which predominate in my collection are Built to Spill, Modest Mouse, Ween, Pavement, The Flaming Lips, and Radiohead, but my collection overall is quite extensive and varied. Yet, I like this album better than any other album I own. It's simple (in an aesthetic sense). It's pure. It's sweet. It's enduring. It's personal. It's just so damn friendly. Taste in music being how it is, I wouldn't suggest that this will be your favorite cd. But if you like your music unpretentious, you should at least listen to it and see what happens.

Of all the Elephant 6-related bands, The Gerbils may be my favorite. This is a wonderful album that rewards you anew with repeat listenings.

The Gerbils don't fall prey to either of E6's two biggest sources of listener alienation: endless sound collages that frustrate your desire for melody, or a sometimes- overwhelming debt to 60's-style Beach Boys-ish featherweight diddies. They write layered, interesting songs, perform them with instrumentation that grabs you and hangs on for dear life, and record them with wonderful production. Great songwriting, great lyrics, just plain great.

Have you sucked on your helium today?

Okay, maybe poking fun at the vocal stylings of this wonderfully loveable band isn't fair at all, but the first time you hear that voice you cannot help but think; what did this guy inhale?

Once you get past that though, all there is to hear are the songs, and dreadfully fun songs they are. You haven't heard this branch of the indie-pop tree; not since your weird cousin showed you those four-track tapes he recorded when he was high.

Yes, the drums sound like a toy drum kit. Yes, the guitars tinkle like Christmas chimes. Yes, the singer sounds like the demented, helium-sucking half-brother of Billy Corgan. Yes, they began life as part of the infamous Elephant 6 Collective.

And yes, you will absolutely adore this wonderfully eclectic batch of slightly off-kilter pop songs about love being like glue and dinosaurs and ditching your friends when you go to Portastatic shows. Reach into those pockets and grab a copy. You'll either be overly annoyed that you did, but far more likely, you'll love yourself for it.

Highly addictive, fun, indie-pop. Having regarded this gem as fun but disposable for a number of years, it's slowly revealed itself to have more depth/staying-power than I initially thought. I'd consider it a minor classic.

I've always thought it was kinda funny that every odd-numbered track is genius, and every even track is good or decent. In genius category: "Sunshine Soul" and "Crayon Box" are upbeat rockers with insanely catchy riffs and melodies. "Fluid" is a touching and funny love song that probably would have been a huge hit if the Gerbil's voices and production style didn't sound like elves and aliens, respectively. "Glue" (famously covered by Neutral Milk Hotel, a band that shared three members with the Gerbils) is the centerpiece, a slow track that builds in intensity as it goes along. "Walnuts" is skewed psychedelic pop with a slightly harder edge, and closer "Grin" reminds me of the Beatles with its odd disembodied voice echoing the lines of the main vocal.

The weakest tracks are "Wet Host," a pleasant but barely there instrumental (this album's "Treefingers") and "Lead," an atypically dark dirge.

The first (and at the time I write this, only) album from The Gerbils shows their potential to be yet another great Elephant 6 band. 'Are You Sleepy?' would be a solid album, if only it were half as long. As it is, the disk is worth picking up for every odd numbered track. Songs like Glue, Fluid, Crayon Box, and Walnuts are instantly catchy and will have you skipping back to them time and time again. The even numbered tracks are all fairly expendable, however, especially the noise track 'Wet Host' (when did these E6 bands get the impression that people like several minutes of noise right in the middle of an album?) If you like E6 bands, you'll probably enjoy much of this album. See if you can't find a cheap copy.

This album is incredible. If you are a fan of The Apples In Stereo, The Olivia Tremor Control, or Neutral Milk Hotel, you will love this album. "Glue" is one of my all time favorite tracks, and all the others are excellent as well. Even "Wet Host" is brilliant :).

If you like Apples in Stereo, Olivia Tremor Control, or Neutral Milk Hotel you will surely enjoy this cd. It has excellent pop hooks and those cool fuzz tones on everything...incuding the vocals! Track 3 is particularly good.

This CD is simply stunning. If you're looking for a hihly polished gem that has been cultivated and nuitured by some big-wig record company, LOOK AWAY. Go listen to britney spears. this cd is about raw energy and talent. it's fuzzy, it's loose. it off key. it's impecable.

Sweet mid-fi fuzz pop with a smidgen of drinkable bleach .It makes me think of hot afternoons in the sun. I recommend if you like singable lyrics and loose but heavy at times fuzz-rock.

this is surely one of the best albums ever. if you enjoy wholesome indie rock and Also Consternation Inward Drops you will love this almbum. huh, thats right.