Bands like Brooklyn based Bodega intrigue me. They have been described as being sardonic punks who make art rock for a broken world and describe themselves as openly and shamelessly pretentious, presenting wordy ideas on philosophy and millennial existence atop post-punk. Their name apparently comes from the name of a corner shop in New York City. They have a new album out this month, ‘Our Brand Could Be Yr Life,’ a concept album about the current corporate mentality of underground/indie rock, where the band simultaneously desecrate and celebrate a certain indie rock cannon, hoping to redeem its’ ‘fall from grace’ like foolish missionaries who inherited a stained formal tradition that needs to change in order to become meaningful again.
The name of the album comes as a tribute to the author Michael Azzarad who released a book entitled `Our Band Could Be Your Life`. This long player is kind of new, as a fair number of the tracks are heavily reworked arrangements of older songs and a couple of brand new numbers bookmarking them.
The album begins with a new track `Dedicated To The Dedicated` which is a kind of enticing new wave power pop offering that brought to mind The Knack. I`m not sure if `G.N.D. Deity` is short for a grounded earthly goddess or somebody who appears to be but it`s an enchanting interplay between Nikki Belfiglio and Ben Hozie with a kind of reaffirmation as to the song`s subjects positive attributes.
The next few songs that follow are reworked numbers beginning with `Bodega Bait` which is much clearer and forceful in it`s message of commercial opportunity. Speaking about ‘Tarkovski’ in a press release, Ben Hozie said: “‘Tarkovski’ is a pun on the famous Russian director and skiing; I was enamoured by his book “Sculpting in Time” but found that many of his professed rules and guidelines for filmmaking were broken by his own filmmaking practices.” The original number is quite understated whereas this version is much more powerful and punchy and twice the length of its predecessor.
`Major Amberson` is a delightful earworm and a power pop number in the style of Weezer while `Stain Gaze` is extended and has a clearer melodic nuance to me and doesn`t have the distorted guitar feedback of the former cut. The dreaminess of the prior `Webster Hall` is retained and almost enhanced and to me is delightfully mesmerising. I thought that `ATM` is probably the first number that i`ve heard about an automated teller machine or cash dispenser and has a kind of restrained Devo `Freedom Of Choice` vibe.
The delightfully titled `Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Drum` may be a tribute in title to Pink Floyd`s `Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun` but that`s where the similarities end. This number is fairly tribal at times with aural soundbites spliced in for good measure. I found that `Protean` was pretty kaleidoscopic and had, at least in my mind a Velvet`s `I`m Waiting For the Man` ambience.
`Born Into By What Consumes` is what was originally `Cultural Consumer V` and is a brief aesthetic diatribe shared over a pulsing drumbeat and gentle strummed guitar riffs. We enjoy over eight minutes of music across the trio that make up `Cultural Consumer I, II & III`. The former is a kind of slacker fest, the mid offering a pop like submission with lyrics that almost sneer at a lack of artistic awareness, while the concluding piece is fast paced, and punk tinged with lyrics that were beyond me and mentioned China and it`s culture at times throughout.
The album concludes on a new track `City Is Taken` a narrative about the band’s relationship to the gentrification of their hometown , The Big Apple or The City That Never Sleeps. Nikki Belfiglio heads up the majority of the vocals on this rolling enticing and appealing track with Ben Hozie joining in at the conclusion.
Bodega who comprise of guitarist and vocalist Ben Hozie, vocalist Nikki Belfiglio, lead guitarist Dan Ryan, bassist Adam See, and drummer Adam Shumski have been described as Talking Heads meets B-52s and that is a pretty fair assessment, but they are so much more. They share some melodic and some less so numbers with lyrics that are pretty intellectual and some that I found much more difficult to decipher. Nevertheless the album had me captivated throughout it`s entire lifespan and I look forward to discovering what path they take next.
The band tour the UK in May and again in October so you`ll hopefully get to experience what they have to offer in a live situation.
Rating 8.5 /10
