The E.P. "Moving to Mexico" has just about slid in to the cd-player, when I look down and realize that my foot is moving happily. "Some other day" consists of everything that you look for in a melodic, rhythmic jazz/swing/country-inspired indie pop song. The lyrics are indie music lyrics with a poetic undertone - never banal:
"I call up at night, pretend I'm not me, and hang up pretty soon, the silence is too hard to bare"
"..when I wake up please kiss me, if not, my dreams were all in vain, and if I dress like pretty Chinese soldiers don't hate me"
Possible limitations to the moes potential are more probable to lay in the recording conditions than in band limitations. The lads are well synchronized and tight and deliver easily sung melodies that stick in your ears, even though you already have pressed eject. The second song, "Donkey" belongs to the category of songs that makes you walk a little faster, and makes you press the accelerator a little harder without you noticing it. The melody twines through the harmonies like a fish in turbulent waters, but still manages to find the right way. Then, before the song risks repetitiveness, it breaks of with a swinging harmonica solo. A very successful move. Song number 3, "Simple ghost" is perhaps my favourite track on "Moving to Mexico". The song starts out soft with winding guitar tinkling, and then lifts a notch to something reminding of an Aimee Mann song, but with less bass and drums. In ballads a singer voice really faces a great test, and that's why it is fun to hear Erik get through the song with a balanced and stable voice that seldom slips out of key. The two last songs "Hard to Get" and "Loveletters" are very well done and listenable, but don't live up to the same high standards as the first three songs. It has been a pleasure to listen through "Moving to Mexico" and I would like to end the review with an advice: Buy the record!
Score: n/a
The flaming moes had been an unknown concept to me until now. The Swedish lads that originate from different parts of our oblong country have gotten an incredibly good start with their unique blend of pop/country/jazz that breezes well.
The first release from the band for starters contains two energetic tracks that bring out pure joy of life. You want to jump out of the dim room of the dreary everyday life and make vaults on the kitchen floor. It feels somewhat like that.
Then they take it a little easier, and slow it down a tad in "simple ghost" and it only shows what enormous capacity the flaming moes have got. The noticeably strongest track "Hard To Get" is fully brilliant in its simple way of presenting itself.
But it’s not until "Loveletters" that you begin to notice the sadness in the happiness, without losing that spark.
"Steal all my loveletters and burn them
it's not like I need the stamps
There's a word for every feeling
There's a man for every penny
If there's a knife inside my stomache
Please pull it out"
The enormous potential of the flaming moes promises quiet a lot. Look out!
Score: 4/5
If I get it right, parts of Skövde band Piranha are members of the flaming moes too. My advice to them is to put all their energy in this group instead. For the flaming moes present very interesting and swinging rock music, something I cannot say about Piranhas stereotype music.
Apart from slightly boring ballad Simple Ghost, "Moving to Mexico" is a pure energy kick. I choose to categorize this as rock music, but there are many influences under the wings of the band. It smells a little like country music and pop sometimes. The most important thing though, is not the style of music, but the solid swing. Sure there is a slight ray of sadness under it all, but foremost this is music you get happy and spirited by listening to.
The concluding track Loveletters makes me unattemptedly think of road trips. Don't ask me why, but I immediately see extensive landscapes passing by outside a car window when I hear the song. By the way, this is an exquisite song with exactly the right amount of thoughtfulness about it. Flaming moes create feelings with their music, something that is really important. And the arrangements are unusually well organized, coming from a demo band.
Score: 4/5
"When the weight of the world has got you down
and you want to end your life.
Bills to pay, a dead-end job,
and problems with the wife.
But don't throw in the tow'l,
'cause there's a place right down the block
Where you can drink your misery away
At Flaming Moe's...
When liquor in a mug
can warm you like a hug.
And happiness is just a Flaming Moe away
Happiness is just a Flaming Moe away"
-- Signature melody for Moe's Tavern a la "Cheers"
(The Simpsons S3E10: #8F08: "Flaming Moe's")
It was the signature
dekman who said it in a discussion in the forum, and it's truer than amen in the church: every band that has a Simpson connection in their name deserves respect! And if my memory doesn't betray me, there is also a band with the name
Monty Burns & The Sector 7G Drones, but I really can't remember where or even what it was about.
Regarding the flaming moes, they have their picture set for themselves. At least to some extent.
When the moes (yes, they call themselves that) talk about country and jazz in their press release and refer to sombreros, tequila and general desert symbolism the step to
Calexico is about 20 centimeters.
At least in theory.
But instead they play harmonica in "Donkey" like it was "Orange Blossom Special", opening track "Some Other Day" swings like a gang of troubadours at a barbeque party, and suddenly someone has kidnapped a synthesizer and stretches the carpet of sound into distorted patterns.
That's the flaming moes strength.
The flaming moes weakness is when they want to highlight the melancholy.
This country is already filled to the top with sad lads who want to market the Swedish sadness, but my god, it's enough now. Instead, re-conquer the Swedish Sin with a joy in playing and lyrics about "I can play hard to get" ("Hard To Get"), not by making a carbon copy of
Kristoffer Åström and his
Hidden Truck ("Loveletters") with such a blunt pen that all of the uniqueness is smeared in diffuse layers.
Blow in that saxophone until the eye globes pop out, clap hands until the palms of the hands are skinned, grind the melodies through the keyboard until they are cross-eyed and wander all over the place and never, never, never stop Swinging.
"It's like there's a party in my mouth and everybody's invited!"
--
Moe Szyslak
Just like that.
Score: 6/10
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