Customer Reviews

Biota Bondo

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's hard to describe Iffy's sound (and even harder to compare them to any other bands out there). Iffy is funky, groovy and so much fun to listen to! Great for groovin at a party, in the car, or whenever you need to get energized. The lyrics are a total stream of consciousness - which make the songs interesting to listen to over and over again. My faves are Hi-Life, The Citation and Proof for their wacky lyrics and danceability. I've recommended this CD to lots of friends with different musical tastes and they've all loved it. And, Iffy puts on a great live show. Catch 'em if you can. You won't be disappointed!

This cd has been with me for the better part of a decade now, and I'm still digging it. I wish Iffy would come back and hit us with another release, but I'm not complaining. This album is solid and has worn well.

Yes, Superbad Girl was played on a K-Mart commerical and that's why I bought it. When the commerical came on I was always dancing to it. It said it was buy Iffy. I bought this CD and I was pleased with this purchase. There were many other songs to dance to.

The lead singer KjustinJ from Iffy and Run Westy Run is an amazingly versitle singer and an all around talented artist. His lyrics are pure poetry, his melodies are very unique and his stage presence is absolutely magnetic. Oh and by the way these two bands couldn't be anymore different. Run Westy Run is a powerful guitar driven uncatagorizable band and Iffy is a modern electronica driven equally uncatagorizable band. I lived in Minneapolis 10 years ago and have been a huge Run Westy Run fan ever since and I have always thought they were the best band in town (yes, better than Prince, The Replacements, Husker Du, Soul Asylum, etc) but that is just my opinion. In conclusion my hat goes off to his new band as it is a daring departure from his former style. Very, very, very catchy sounds and I hope to catch them (or Run Westy Run?) live real soon.

Iffy has got one of the most infectious grooves I've heard in ages. You can't listen to them and stay in a bad mood, let alone sit still. If this CD is not in your collection then you are really missing out on something special.

I was forced to buy this album on the strength of some very intriguing cuts I'd heard on the intrawebs, which has now become my primary stimulus toward musical impulse buying. (Previously, I'd walk into Ye Olde Music Shop and basically buy two of whatever they happened to be playing at the moment.) Was this a wise choice? My basic rule is that if you can get three really good tunes off an album, you've come up with a winner. Let's judge the results.

The opening track, "Double Dutch", has a quite snappy drive and very adroit vocals. The trouble is, I have no clue what the lyrics mean. "Those practiced eyes drift with great accuracy / Co-stars elated on dull currency / Like children waiting for a nurse's touch / Ring out the spoiled yarns ya love so much". In fact, a lot of the songs on this album feature this sort of borderline gibberish. It sounds good, it scans well, it rhymes nicely, but it often takes a Soul Coughing stream-of-consciousness approach of "Hey, these words sound cool--let's jam 'em together and see what happens!" Lyrics aside, perhaps one reviewer said it best when he noted of this song that it "sounds like it fell off a Sugar Ray album, and thought better of getting back on".

The next four tracks aren't great, they aren't terrible, they have a few nifty quirks, but they just don't work for me.

The next winner comes with "Original Greenlight", a slowed-down number with, again, nimble vocals, albeit often eschewing any consonants. It comes off great, although I still wonder quite what "an ambassador's first child" has to do with it all. Much less what this passage means: "Ya gotta ya de ya filp to the folppy, they suck up all the H2O, get dizzy on toppah." I wish that was just my transcription, but it's straight from the liner notes.

Another couple of minor tracks follow, then we come to what I find to be the core of the album, kicking off with "Joyrider", a fast-paced rocker where the lyrics are recorded rather less mushily and make vaguely more sense. Nice backing vocals by Gwen Matthews. Next up is "Larva Rae", a country-inflected tune with some Mexican border influences, a lap steel guitar, and a few horn flourishes. "Yonder came down my way, Hell came out to play." Indeed.

"Superbad Girl" is the best cut off the album and just flat-out jams. If this won't get you dancing, you are probably already six feet under. While this was a big commercial success, the group might be a little embarrassed by it, since they don't mention who provided the female vox on the liner notes.

"Proof" is just great fun and great funk bordering on loving blaxploitation. "Seriously, K, what's up? What are you thinkin'? This lowball hustling, you're never gonna recoup on the streets hassle. Tick tock, tick tock, tickety tock, tickety tock. Baby, your time's up."

The final song, "Maskman", is okay, but a little of a downer note to end the album on.

Iffy is a Minneapolis-based producer collaboration, and this particular album was a transatlantic effort, thanks to fileswapping over the Internet. The trio did excellent work in balancing a polished sound while also maintaining a certain loose and unpredictable rawness. Musically, they provide an entire smorgasbord of musical genres over the course of the 15 tracks. Highly recommended.

Even the dark tracks on this one leave you with a feeling that all is well with the world. If you want to just chill out and feel good for once, listen to this album. It's a mish-mash of sounds that move rhythmically over kjustinj's free-verse poetry. From reading about their much heavier background in the Minneapolis punk scene, I'm surprised at how mellow this album is, while still having a lot of pure substance. Every track on this CD should be on heavy radio rotation right about now. And I certainly hope that they are still around, making music this good.

To write a review of this album I don't know where to start. Hm..... Well first off let me say this album NEVER EVER gets old. I've had it for about a year and a half and it never gets old and I can't imagine it getting old anytime soon.

Iffy's sound is so unique it is unlike anything out there. It is a fusion of rock (tracks like: Can O Cope,Da Blink), pop (tracks like:Double Dutch) , dance (The Hi-Life) and even some hip-hop thrown in. This music is just so fun and layered with all kinds of sounds and different instruments like bongos.

My favorite tracks are: The Hi-Life (which just has a very good chorus and you'll be singing it all day) and Da Blink (which again has a great sing along feel and probably the heaviest track, if you can even say that).

Overall this is a fun, different album that will keep you singing with it all day long.

This CD came out and I couldn't stop listening to it. I kept it in my car and listened to it all of the time last summer. I had put it away for a while and pulled it out again just yesterday. The music just does not get stale! This band is on a small label and the CD was hard to find for a while. I ended up buying it four times as I gave mine away to friends. Iffy's music has such a funky groovy positive vibe. It just feels good to listen to. Their live shows are tremendous if your lucky enough to catch one. They are currently touring, check iffy.net.

It's funky and smart. Catchy tunes stay in your head, make you want to move and the lyrics are heady fun. Catch 'em live if you can. Can't see anyone that wouldn't enjoy this party.