steering clear of the mainstream
since 2001

june 2010

review
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info opinion

The Simple Carnival

"Girls Aliens Food" CD

self-released

Genre: power pop

Delmont, PA

January 2010

Simple Carnival's lone Jeff Boller sports a massive hard-on for The Beach Boys and I'm not even kidding, although my phallic inspections are, admittedly, purely figurative. On Girls Aliens Food, Boller self-admittedly pops (not rocks) through eleven shimmering tunes, and at its best moments, one does not even perceive the limitations of a one man (+ studio) band. I'm speaking, of course, about the jubilant ba-bas of "Really Really Weird," the loungey ba-da-das of "Flirt," and the slippery "you-you-yous" of dazzling "You Jump First." The instrumentation is effective though often simple, with plenty of chintzy synths, bouncy basslines, springy guitars, and allegedly a few self-constructed instruments, but it's Boller's ample, multi-layered vocal range which takes centre stage. There's even a blissful a capella piece, which lives up to its name -- "Nothing Will Ever Be As Good" -- as the record's indubitable high point, a sublime and dynamic three minutes of perfectly overdubbed auto-harmony.

Miscalculations are rare on Girls Aliens Food, though flat "Keeping it Quiet" and bossa nova zzz-zzz-er "Over Coffee and Tea" lack the taut hooks of the rest of the album. In addition, the album's home-production, though quite acceptable, occasionally lacks the warmth and fullness of more professional (and expensive) recording set-ups; blank baseboards of silence support many of the songs, revealing a flat foundation during the disc's more spasmodic bits. Still, I don't want to revel in this record's rough spots, because Girls Aliens Food is, by and large, a fundamentally excellent (and eternally infectious) bit of sunny power-pop. Boller has amply rewarded my dip into the long-overdue review bin.

the simple carnival's myspace

Matt Shimmer

[Vitals: 12 tracks, distributed by the band, released 2009]