Lazlo Bane

11 Transistor (Almo Sounds)
by Sheril Stanford

With the exception of a couple of tracks, Lazlo Bane‘s 11 Transistor is a collection of musical monkeyshines, korn-y life-is-peachy, everything-is-hunky-dory, happy-bunny, things -look -sunny, THIS- far- away -from -geek-schtick, scurvy, snappy, scrappy slop pop. The song that first got attention for Boston based Lazlo Bane (attention from LA’s KROQ, no less) is “I’ll Do Everything,” which features a classic indie rock intro with discordant guitars giving way to feedback and crashing power chords. But when the vocals come in, it’s straight to Weezer-ville: “I bought myself one of those late night machines, it’ll slice your life to pieces, then it will glue it back again…”. The tune also visits Mayberry, with whistling of the “Aww, Aint Bee,” “Now, Opie, do what Aint Bee says!” variety. A truly outstanding track is a cover of Men at Work’s “Overkill” (the one that goes, “I can’t get to sleep, thinking ’bout the complications, of diving in too deep…). Lead Man at Work, Colin Hay, contributes his vocals on the last verse. Kinda makes you think, Hey, that was a great song! “1975” is another catchy number with vocals reminiscent of Van Morrison, back when he was fun, you know, before he found god. The chorus goes like this: “It was 1975, when the Red Sox were on fire, my brother got the Joe G.I., over the holidays…” With its unlikely cheerless melody and melancholy lyrics, “Flea Market Girl” is one of the few dark songs on the disc, delivered acoustic style.

Lest you be wondering, Lazlo Bane is named for the main character in the book Theme Park Roadkill by Rachel Andrews. No clue about the meaning behind the album title, but mayhaps it has something to do with Lazlo Bane’s recording equipment. The disc, a collection of demos, was recorded on 16 tracks in the garage of Chad Fischer, the driving force behind Lazlo Bane. A model of no frills simplicity, 11 Transistor is 99 and 44/100ths percent pure good times – it’s that other 56/100ths that’ll getcha.