Beep Beep - Business Casual

Your opinion of Beep Beep will most likely be decided by what you think of their vocals. While not always the best part of their music, it is definitely the most noticeable. Singer Chris Houghes flies all over the place sounding like a more paranoid version of McLusky’s Andy Falkous without the Bon Scott accent. He ranges from panicked whispers to wavering falsetto to throaty screams faster than you can say Mike Patton. You’ll either think he’s a genius or you’ll think he’s obnoxious. No matter what you think of the vocals, you’re bound to be impressed by the precision attack of the music behind them. Instrumentally, they carry a very clean and tight Shellac-like sound, with a little Tomahawk twang and Death From Above 1979 danceability. In fact, “Oh No!” sounds like a DFA1979 song that found its way onto the wrong tracklist. Some electronic noodlings appear here and there (the bleep-bloop intro to “Giggle Giggle” and the bizarre throw away track “Chewy Poison”) but the band plays a pretty rigid straight man to the often slapstick singing. Business Casual carries a pretty consistent sound, but a couple of the tracks manage to stand out. “Misuse their Bodies” plucks a ringing guitar riff straight from The Joshua Tree and throws an exhilarating 8 bar Hammond solo at you that could only have been finished with on hand on the keys and one toward the sky. “Vertical Cougar” features some subtle dynamics and controlled vocals that work with the music instead of against it, which give things a more welcoming feel, if only for three minutes. All in all, Business Casual is a pretty solid debut. Beep Beep keep you guessing by always staying an arms length away from accessibility. They could take some steps to be more user-friendly, but you get the idea that they’d much rather make you uncomfortable. [www.ilovebeepbeep.com]