Deflator Mouse

Better, Stronger, Truer, Weaker (Popsmear)
by Katy Shea

One time when I was in 5th grade, I went to this dance at my church. There was this group of boys and they were standing in the corner in their Levis cords, you know, and their second-hand Lacoste shirts with the Alligator over their pre-pubescent boy nips and they were looking around like they were really bored and we all kinda just wished they would talk to us and the room smelled a lot like Ajax, which sucked, and then one of the teachers… what? Oh, I’m sorry. Deflator Mouse, right. Remind me to tell you about this dance…

Ah… Deflator Mouse, yes. Another proud member of the Blink 182 club (official motto: “we’re punk but we write cute little accessible pop songs with falsetto and witty lyrics,” um… minus the wit [and falsetto] this time). They’re perhaps more dynamic than the normal club member – I could say they are Bob Mould/Violent Femmes/Dead Milkmen wannabes who seem to take themselves too seriously – how’s that? The glaring inelegance of the lyrics can really only be matched by the irritating screechy atonal wail heard on lead vocals. There are some catchy tunes (natch), but the content is so watered-down and vapid that we’re left with punk with no anger, pop with no wit, retro with no irony, etc. Deflator Mouse have successfully deflated a genre that was already on its fifth can of fix-o-flat to get onto the road of credibility. Nice job guys. Good times.
(6687 Sonoma Highway Santa Rosa, CA 95409)