Local musical eccentrics Chick Pimp, Coke Dealer at a Bar celebrate the release of their new CD, The People Vs. Lemoncello, with a huge show at the Southgate House this Friday. Performing throughout the Southgate will be The Sundresses, The Lions Rampant, Rumpke Mountain Boys, Wonky Tonk, The Harlequins, CJ the Cynic, Bullying Ben Jones, Losanti and many others. The show is also a “label launch,” as the band announces its new imprint, Grasshopper Juice Records.—-
It would be difficult to explain to your mom exactly “what kind of band” Chick Pimp is. As evidenced by their band’s name, this clearly isn’t a group of individuals interested in coloring between the lines. The People Vs. Lemoncello is all over the place, experimental by nature, but also joyful and playful. Throughout the record, the band sounds like a straight-ahead Jazz band, a Free Jazz band, Beck, They Might Be Giants, aliens, Jethro Tull, an Alt Hip Hop crew, Zappa on a laptop, a Bluegrass band, Soul Coughing … and that’s just scratching the proverbial surface. Over the course of 10 songs, Chick Pimp creates a mad collage of visceral sounds, like a mash-up band that doesn’t rely on other people’s music.
The album kicks off with two Jazz-inflected tunes, “Lemoncello” and “Samsara,” which turns into a flanged-out, carnivilian romp with a slackerly melody creeping in and out. On the title track, the band trades its saxes and clarinets for a thick bass line and pulsating beat, as Bullying Ben Jones and Rayna J help out with some blunt rhymes. The track “Manumaleuna” kicks off with a Klezmer vibe before mutating into some ’70s Fusion, all directed and tweaked by studio electronics. The album closes with “Plastic Man,” a duet with Wonky Tonk that sounds like a duet between Beck and Peaches, with splashes of ElectroBluegrass and the duet turning more into a Moldy Peaches-like song by the end.
Descriptors be damned, Chick Pimp stands as one of the more interesting and creative bands in the area. Even when the band falls short on the album, its still fascinating to listen to. And if you get to a part of the disc you don’t like, just wait three seconds — it’s gonna change.
