Thin Lizard Dawn

(RCA)
by Scott Hefflon

I’ve been waiting for a band like this for years. New York’s Thin Lizard Dawn are young, attractive, stylishly/goofily-dressed, take their band name from Tom Robbins’ Skinny Legs And All , love the Beatles (and can actually sing and play well enough to earn that comparison), and provide 13 songs that vary so greatly, you keep asking others in the room, “This is cool. Who is this?” And yet, Thin Lizard Dawn has a sound and style distinctly their own. More like a range of styles, actually. One hears such sounds and what can one say but Thin Lizard Dawn? Don’t answer that. Anyone who writes these chaps off as bunch of ’90s musician geeks who decided that mixing The Beatles and Bush together would be a swell way to make a quick buttload of cash, well, they just aren’t listening very carefully. Sure, the sensitive stuff sounds like Jellyfish (fuck you, I liked ’em), the trippy, orchestrated rock sounds like Earth 18 (if you’re unfamiliar with them, do yourself a favor…) and the ability to incorporate everything from The Beatles to Nirvana to angry punk into one cohesive whole like Birdbrain (you try to write such varied songs and make ’em all kick booty), but Thin Lizard Dawn at least have the taste to borrow from the best and use it in their own interesting fashion.

“Sucks” hits the nail on the head. Perhaps it shouldn’t’ve taken me ’til song 12 to realize they sound kinda like Oasis, but at least they admitted it before I had the chance to accuse them of it. “Sucks” opens with much the same melody as “Sexual Dynamo,” but uses a sillier organ sound (whichever one The Black Crowes overuse). And the lyrics are mint, especially when followed by the “oooh, oooh/aaah, aaah” fawning of the masses. To wit: “Here come the latest fabrications/ One in a series of bad sensations/ Devoid of any real creation/ And able to fool entire nations/ Stop me somehow if I start to Suck like Oasis/ Suck like Oasis, does” – the “does” is, of course, drawn out in playful parody of Oasis’ style – “Here come the latest imitations/ If I needed inspiration/ I’d listen to D Generation/ And I know I’d be vindicated/ ’cause even at my worst at least I’ve never Sucked like Oasis/ Sucked like Oasis, does.” Beautiful, absolutely beautiful. And the song is even catchier than Local H’s “Eddie Vedder,” and much less irritating than the now-fingernails-on-a-chalkboard (it’s funny when you play it, irritating when someone else does) “Van Halen” by Nerf Herder. From the opening, half-volume intro of “What Did I Do” with its idling motorcycle sounds, to the closing “Heavily Addicted” with its toy piano (or is this one of the many hip new songs bringing the xylophone back to the forefront of pop music where it belongs?) and bong-bubbling background (or are they making mac and cheese?), Thin Lizard Dawn earn the right to use Tom Robbins’ words for their name. A musical non-sequitur.