Mrs. Jones' Cookies is a masterpiece, albeit a wholly deranged and out of this world one. Album-opener "In The Garden" brings Eden to life in a dangerous and temptation-filled world of cat-calling howls and seductive word play, including the head-turning phrase "I want you to lick my ass in the garden." What's clear throughout the album's ten tracks is that very few contemporary bands are capable of writing and performing music both this simultaneously sophisticated and out-of-sync with popular music. Time truly has no foothold or place in the world of the Sandwitches. Sure, there are aspects of 60s and 70s folk and psychedelia, but those tones and shades of familiarity all dance around on their heads in colors never before seen. Am I drooling yet?
One of the more straightforward and potent tracks is the love song "My Heart Does Swell," which features Heidi Alexander and Grace Cooper spreading their vocal weight across high and low tones, giving the harmony an androgynous and full bodied feel. It's one of the band's signature moves and it works over and over again throughout Mrs. Jones' Cookies. While the record excels in its lighter moments, it is within its darkest songs where the trio truly develops a vice grip around the throat of their chosen medium. The loose, garage-concocted, and primordial "Heaviest Head In The West" draws the mind to a desolate science fiction wasteland: an intoxicating brew of wandering electric guitars, a slow death march of drums, and the occasional unnerving dissonance. The song is one of many that prove to be astoundingly visual and textural, a feat more impressive considering the band's basic instrumentation. In 2011, there is perhaps no band more aggressively honest and loyal to their distinctive sound than the Sandwitches.
Pre-order the LP now on sturdy vinyl from Endless Nest.
The Sandwitches - "Joe Says" (from Mrs. Jones' Cookies)
The Sandwitches - "Lightfoot" (from Mrs. Jones' Cookies)
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