Throughout their 27 year career, underground rock doyens Cheer-Accident have been enticing audiences with their compelling yet wildly odd releases. The band have candidly deconstructed and recoiled the tropes and commonalities of popular music, producing a suite of rock albums that challenge and confuse. Their musical ventures into dissonance and angularity often encourages journalists to slot them in the math rock canon (oops). But of course, there is much more to Thymme Jones’ troupe of avant-freaks, who regularly push their instruments beyond the sonic familiarities chronicled by genres. Perhaps 27 years of hard work forces that on a musician.
It is thus no surprise that their new album Fades has turned out that way it has. Take ‘House of Dowse’ with its Zappa-esque synths and jangling guitars; its zany interlude with a horn array spitting out oddball key changes; its unusual vocal work by Nils Frykdahl of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum fame, who spits out repetitive quips like ‘walk to the sunny side‘ and ‘Dowse is in house‘. The listener is left startled, discombobulated, wondering who on earth Robby Dobby Dowse is.
Yes, Fades is shaping up to be a release that will once again demonstrate Cheer-Accident’s uncanny ability to captivate through its eccentricity, like a clinically insane Pied Piper.
Fades is out May 25th via the hardworking and uncompromising homies in Skin Graft Records. Hit up their bandcamp page for pre-orders right now. Respect your elders, kids.