Dalmatians :: Pop/Rock Ruff Drafts Album Review
2004-09-15
Sonic Boom Records
http://www.sonicboomrecords.com/reviews/review.asp?review=81
Dalmatians
Pop/Rock Ruff Draft (Imputor)
The Dalmatians, a new three-piece punk/electronic/slam-dance expo from Seattle, have stayed fairly quiet on the fringes up until now. Their shows, aside from the Capitol Hill Block Party and their recent record release show at Neumo’s with the Unicorns, have been largely limited to warehouses, art openings and basements—the usual rites of passage in this town for a band that doesn’t have that smooth indie ganache to make the rock go down easy. The Dalmatians are spastic, tight, funny, irreverent, and absolutely pop in their palatability, but without losing their angular danciness. For those who must have some kind of comparison, think of Le Tigre sans the gender politics. In fact, think of Le Tigre with no politics, no shame, and no concern about using the word “retarded” clearly, often, and rhyming it with—you guessed it—“farted.” And with a boy rapper. And better electronics. Hey, maybe they aren’t so much like Le Tigre after all! I guess we can say that now that Le Tigre is re-releasing their records—wha??
The Dalmatians debut CD, “Pop/Rock Ruff Draft,” is available now at the choicest record stores in town, namely, Sonic Boom. The above picture, by the way, is a still from the film “101 Dalmatians” by the Disney Evil World Empire Corporation, and it is NOT what the Dalmatians’s cover art looks like. The Dalmatians, the band, have handmade supercool cut-from-boxes cardboard sleeves screened with different images of dalmatians (the dog breed, not the band members, which, of course, are not actually dalmatians but human beings like you and me) AND includes a fan-kid badge especially for you, you savvy shopper you! Once these limited covers run out (they only made 1,000 of them) you may be relegated to buying their (by that time, I’m sure) Grammy-award-winning record with covers screened by factory workers in Canada, onto precut, same-sized cardboard and with the badge only available if you join the fanclub and type in a special code on the homepage. Don’t be late on the scene, bro. It’ll only embarrass all of us.
— Michaela Brangan
