One Track Mind

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Okay, here goes: The Wake, New Order, Bauhaus, Gary Numan, and The Bravery walk into a bar…

Los Angeles foursome Abe Vigoda may have a silly name, but their music doesn’t fool around. It’s as steely and dark as it is retro and ’80s inspired–like The Postal Service’s brooding, goth step-sibling. The band’s fourth LP, Crush, will be released on September 21st by PPM, whose roster is fleshed out by similarly oriented groups such as No Age, Mika Miko, Wavves, and Liars.

Our first taste of the new effort is “Throwing Shade,” a song which is by turns artificially skittish and sleekly propulsive in the new New Romantic style of groups like Interpol and Editors. Its verses are stabbed by unexpected prickly synth glissandi. A drum machine jackhammers a beat with all cylinders firing, steam practically seeping out from between the bolts–only to be outdone by a more random and more sonically foregrounded inorganic drum fill.

Vocalist Michael Vidal’s work still lacks a certain polish, but he understands the tone and tenor of this aesthetic more than most of his peers. Abe Vigoda teeters on the verge of introducing too many ingredients into “Thowing Shade” but keeps things from becoming overwrought by moving the track through various levels of intensity. Indeed, keeping things moving along is a big theme here; “Throwing Shade” is a restless number, which gives it an engaging flow that makes it easy to listen to over and over.