The PhiLL(er)



Cotton Teeth Cover
The Snake The Cross The Crown

Cotton Teeth
Equal Vision Records

It's difficult to argue with an album that opens with a song that demonstrates a healthy commitment to hand claps and expresses the universal rock 'n' roll dream truth that "I want to play the guitar and I want to get paid." We're deep in alt.country-land with The Snake The Cross The Crown, and not a million miles down the dusty highway from the musical shack inhabited by Health. On "Electronic Dream Plant" they confirm their place in my easily-won heart by doing a nice and long buildup of na-na-na-na's without sounding like "Hey Jude". They end "Behold the River" by singing different things across each other at the same time. The magic of The Snake The Cross The Crown is that they explore all the boundaries of their musical genre without getting lost. In other words, you get a lot of experimentation, but it's grounded in coherent song structures and a consistent aesthetic sensibility. They whistle a little on "Floating In & Out". Let me recap: hand claps, na-na-na's, whistling. What more can you ask for?