Oh Honey, We're Ridiculous

Pas/Cal | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 19, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Le Grand Magistry
• ASIN: B0001AVVI4
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #588,879 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

PAS/CAL just might be the most interesting pop band in America today. Imagine a band with Pulp's knack for intelligent grandiosity, Elliot Smith's fractured falsetto temperments, and the warm harmonies of the Beach Boys."

'Oh Honey, We're Ridiculous', the second EP by the Detroit pop group Pas/Cal, is an effort that was built, quite literally, from the ground up. Prior to recording, Casimer Pascal, the group's vocalist, producer and just all-around mastermind, took it upon himself to convert his garage, with the help of his Pas/Cal crew, into the group's very own recording studio. Much work and care was expended into the layout and make-up of this new creation dubbed Recordings West: blood was shed, sweat was poured and tears were cried. In many ways this effort was an appropriate preface to the recording of 'Oh Honey, We're Ridiculous', for both would prove to be labor-intensive works that required the most careful attention to the tiniest of details: tiny details that would yield enormous results.

The record begins with the latest entry into the Canon of Catchy Compositions, 'What Happened to the Sands', a lyrically pensive and musically rollicking number sure to win over the hearts of all romantics and minds of all intellectuals. References range from the music of the Smiths to the paintings of Wassily Kandinsky while the song bounces and charges amidst shimmering guitar solos, crunchy distortion and some of the wildest drum work heard since the passing of Keith Moon courtesy of Little Tommy Daniels. The NME would plainly say, 'It rocks'. We say, 'It rolls'. Either way you've never heard boys with such sensitivity get so raucous, yet remain so refined.

'Poor Maude' follows, opening with a chiming acoustic guitar leading into what the group refers to as its first 'POPERA'. It's the heartbreaking tale of the oldest woman in the world set over the most meticulous and still charming chamber pop the Left Banke wish they'd come up with. 'Poor Maude' is a song of many movements steered by heart-warming strings, carefully crafted piano, and Nathaniel Burgundy's trademark slithering bass lines, traversing such disparate territories as baroque pop, spacey rock and Rolling Stones-esque jams. Listen carefully to the intricate textures of the music and even more carefully to the moving story the lyrics tell.

The scope is narrowed a bit for a breather on the next track, 'The Handbag Memoirs' (coincidentally the name of Pas/Cals debut EP released on Le Grand Magistery last year). One of the more 'pop' and 'catchy' numbers of the release, the song is also just as pensive and contemplative as the others. 'All the notes that you wrote without me in mind ­ it's alright', our narrator tells his lover over an engaging bossanova beat, as he explores and comes to terms with her accumulated past that she 'carries on [her] shoulder for far too long'.

'Bem, Please Come Home', the release's instrumental, would surely make an excellent song for any Wes Anderson film. Featuring the masterful and touching guitar work of Pas/Cal's lead guitarist, Gene Corduroy, it is also supported by enchanting chimes and synthesizers and crystalline vocals by the titular character, Bem.

The record then closes with the show stopping 'What Do the American Girls Have on Jennifer Jo Jo?' Modeled after the archetypical Great American Song, it is epic in its sweep, complete with whip-snaps, whistle solo and the most beautiful and shocking guitar solos this band has produced thus far. The song alternately lulls with reverberated atmosphere and screams with crunch, crash and intense organ work by Richard Panic. The guitar sounds were laboriously handcrafted in the studio by Gene and Caz, utilizing vintage equipment, ingenuity and old-fashioned knob-twiddling. The result is an epic masterpiece that will have you alternately weeping and cheering.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Impressive 2nd effort, February 6, 2004

By 

Raymond H. "Ray" (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Oh Honey, We're Ridiculous (Audio CD)

Hey give the boys (and girl) a hand!

Detroit's obscure and refreshingly different with their second effort.

I made it to the CD release party and I thought they rocked the house. The lead singer (Casmier) was really nice and funny.

Pick up the album, you can see they are growing, and btw, it is listed as an IMPORT album for some reason when it really isn't

their website: www.pascalgoespop.com

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars excellent, January 6, 2012

By 

Bill Your 'Free Form FM Handi Cyber Print DJ ... (Mahwah, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Oh Honey, We're Ridiculous (Audio CD)

I just became unemployed, and a friend of mine lent me this album to cheer me up. Perhaps it was worth the firing.

Pas/cal (why the slash, I can't figure), are not art rock, but if there were such a thing as art-pop, this would not only explain Pas/Cal, the band might define the term.

If you took a 3-5 minute, three part 1960's British invasion song, and divided those parts into two , and did so again, that will start to describe Pas/Cal. Add more modern flavors like Squeeze to fatten the music.

What is so amazing is how small the song sections are, how well the band screws the little pieces together--think of your dad trying to assemble those complex Christmas toys with the tiny rivets--to make the songs work. You hear music that is incredibly melodic, and never overdrawn or pretentious. You dig on the Beatlesque melody, but are quickly whipsawed to three or four more in the span of a minute

Which is great: hopeless is to process this stuff on first listen, but trying to defeats the purpose. Hearing the tracks run, again and again, and viscerally sponging the elements in is the name of the game here--moving with the fast complexity without being daunted by it. Eventually, you'll get to know the tracks.,

But before you arrive at eventually, you are in for one joyous sound ride in getting there.

5.0 out of 5 stars oh, honey this band is flippin excellent..., January 1, 2005

By 

K. Scutchfield (Detroit) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Oh Honey, We're Ridiculous (Audio CD)

I was at the magic stick w/ my friend lindsay who said "You're gonna love this band" and she was totally right. Pas/cal is so damn catchy and hum-able it makes one suspicious that they might be digging to heavily into the beastle-esque beach boy dreamy eyed mine where few have emerged. But there's a clever-ness, a grinning element of prince-ish storytelling, nevermind the aloof bell jingling over glittering melodies and harmonies that makes it all so good. Yes, pas/cal is a great, great band indeed. heavily recommended.