The PhiLL(er)



Terrible Two Cover
Thank You

Terrible Two
Thrill Jockey Records
Thank You is a polite way to name your band. The title track of this 5-song album begins with two and a half minutes of slow-building organ and cymbal-heavy percussion before giving way to a tom-tom based rhythm that pitches itself against a steady pulsing left hand of the organ and a meandering right. And there's plenty more playing around after that. If you listen to this music while employing your imagination you can pretend it's soundtracking some B-movie from circa 1953, pie tin spaceships hovering above some midwest burg, teenagers dropping their malts and running their bobbysocked feet towards the movie theater or makeout point or wherever else they feel safe from extra-terrestrial visit and/or invasion. Or perhaps that's just me. I'm getting ahead of myself, though because the first track, "Empty Legs" starts with frenetic percussion and a whistle and wailing electric guitar (in the film in my head, the whistle belongs to a traffic cop and the frenzied soundtrack accompanies Alien! Invasion! and mass panic, farmers dropping pitchforks and heading for the spooked cows in the barn, the cigar falling out of the mayor's mouth, maybe some lasers or at least a Tesla coil shooting electricity into the air). The nice thing about playing instrumental music is that you can call your songs things like "Embryo Imbroglio" (imagine that part of the alien invasion storyline!), although there is some melodic yelling (and the whistle again!) on that and other tracks. The point is, these three guys have made a record of exciting, complicated, directed and fun music, and you should get to work making a film to set it to. Get to work!