The Incredible Moses Leroy

Electric Pocket Radio (Ultimatum/Artemis)
by Scott Hefflon

Huh? I skipped the opener, “Beep Beep Love” (an obscure cover, evidently) cuz it sounded like Joy Electric and Robbie Williams doing a tres ’80s dance hit, and jumped right to “Fuzzy,” a ’60s-sounding saccharine-boy and “sha-la-la” girl oozing and drifting through blue skies as flutes wave to balloons and cute puppies chase frisbees, but I crashed to the ground, rolling with laughter at the line “Let’s paint the town red… like Carrie.” Sweet, lilting, sensitive-boy emoting with a little devilish sparkling in the eye when the light hits it just right. “You are… my itchy sweater” brings up Weezer, and that’ll come up later, I’m sure, but let’s whistle the melody and fade out first, eh?

This is The Incredible Moses Leroy, mild-mannered Ron Fountenberry as he collects samples and bits of sonic candy by day, Casio-diddler/sitar-strangler/New Order acoustic-strummer/falsetto weeper as he lays it all down like Loki. I’d bring up the playful Self, but since most people probably have yet to catch onto them (or Joy Electric, for that matter), I’d just be giggling to myself as I light my farts and make my cat stand on his back legs and dance with me, so why bother, really? There’re early Beatles melodies, goofy squeezebox accompaniment, dippy driving radio rock (“Anthem”), but enough personality and charisma to make this far from a self-conscious attempt to be clever or cool or anything so icky. Whether this sells like hotcakes (do hotcakes really sell that well? Why are they the standard to which all is compared?) or only a lucky few catch it and take it into themselves, this is an honest reflection of a diverse and talented thinker/musician. To namedrop a bit, the producer for Spiritualized and Flaming Lips, the engineer for Folk Implosion and Eels, and the drummer for Beck and Elliot Smith helped bring this ray of sunshine into existence.
(8723 W. Washington Blvd. Culver City, CA 90232)