Magoo

"Cry a tear for a lost generation. With flashy American imports stomping the homegrown talent deeper underground, it's the likes of Norwich's Magoo who are suffering. If this really was Magoo's realist week, then it would probably be time to suggest giving up on rock'n'roll for a more profitable career in fruit picking. Thankfully, it isn't. Yet. For just as The Delgados' majestic 'The Great Eastern' proved that British groups could take the ideas gleaned from Mercury Rev and The Flaming Lips and run with them, 'Realist Week' is proof that you don't need a pad in Greenwich Village to make great guitar records. Flipping impatiently between My Bloody Valentine and Minor Threat, Magoo prove that there's more to current underground pop than sounding a bit like The Beta Band. What they lack in charisma they make up for in endeavour and an instinctive ear for a tune. The remarkably pretty 'Knowledge Is Power' would have been a hit in the hands of a band with a better name, while '2 Dearborn' is evidence that it's not just Jim O'Rourke who's capable of doing beautiful things with an acoustic guitar and effects pedal. Time for a parochial pop revival, then? Behold Magoo. It can be done."

review from the channelfly.com :

"We like our bands to behave. Admit it. A single, a ballad and a rocker all packaged in an easily definable stylistic box... Occasionally an artist peers into the box next-door to thieve a loop or snatch a sample before scuttling back into the safety of our expectations so we can pat ourselves on the back and marvel at how diverse our taste is. But don't go too far. Radiohead have finally achieved their goal of becoming musically intimidating, and I love em for it, but I'll be there shouting for The Bends along with all you art rock fakers. Magoo, however, don't behave. They wail and gnash, charm and slash into you. Sitting resolutely outside their designated box. With Motorama and Powerman they touch upon massive, anxious, repetitive thrashes. Brilliant, ball-breaking, '1969' Stooges garage pop, with barely audible vocals, tin pan cymbals and migraine-inducing distortion. Similarly Nastro Adhesivo is wounded with pummelling guitars that buzz angrily like bumble bees caught inside a kinder egg. Elsewhere You Make The Surprise and Realist Week are atmospheric breezes of sound and abstract noise. Dragging you under fazed blankets of mellow keyboards and snippets of spooky spoken words. Somewhere in-between you find smooth, creamy psychedelia (Milk Freaks), conventional, acoustic jangle pop (The High Castle), and an up-tempo late sixties pant swinger (Knowledge Is Power). Like The Super Furries or The Betas, Magoo make selfish, personal, eclectic music that can't be categorised. Never remaining in the same place for long, skipping and tripping across genres. When you get a grip, they've gone, leaving you holding empty melodies while they've shifted gear up a different avenue. Infuriating, but strangely satisfying. While falling short of brilliance, Realist Week lies close enough to a certain unhinged greatness and musical unselfconsciousness to make it worthwhile. Maladjusted, misbehaved, miscreant, scitzo space rock. Put that in your box and smoke it."