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With a little imagination, you could support the claim that King Kong is indierock's answer to the Kinks. After all, they've kicked around the undergroundever since 1989 and managed to keep the boat afloat despite never getting anysort of acknowledgment for their deeds. Problem is, there's not a whole lotthat King Kong ever did that influenced anyone in the least, unless you countEthan Buckler's stint in Slint. In the meantime, King Kong has just donea lot of silly pseudo-adventure LPs that attempted to make a party out of thelifeless and pretentious place American indie rock often is. This particular one,their first for Drag City in five years, shows Buckler and his boys with a boatloadof synths (analog ones, mind you-digital is for the ravers) taking off onan eight-song journey into outer space. It's good for a few laughs, but notmuch more.

Perhaps it's cruel to treat a group of musicians that are doing it for theloooove so unfairly, since they did book valuable studio time at Tortoise'sSoma Electronic Music Studios in Chicago with Neil Thomas Hagerty to get thisright. And there are some moments where they hit on a Stereolab-ish retro-futuristcharm, particularly on the second-to-last track "We Are the People of Kong."But at this point in human evolution, someone should have told Ethan that tunelessvocals went out with the dinosaurs and progressive college radio. And it doesn'thelp that the musical backing lacks the proper soul as well. Well, they say inspace that no can hear you suck. They were wrong.