At track 13, it's part of a strong "second side" of the album. "Get out of My Head" offers some distortion in the open to keep things from being too saccharine and to act as a foil to the pump organ that opens "The Only One," which even features some semi-serious shredding from Rice.
Maybe the best track on the album is the closing "Party Till We Die," which features a vocal trading of lines with Donnas singer Brett Anderson. I'm a sucker for the girl/guy duet thing, and this is another tune I can't get enough of. They do the whole "gimme a p" spelling out of "party," which is entertaining, and the track in general is a gang-chorus of good times.
It's possible, even, that these songs shouldn't be subject to such scrutiny. This is an album for letting loose, for shaking your ass, for getting outside of your own goddamn head every once in a while. The Leftovers come across very much eager to please and if you find yourself unhappy with their attempt it sure as hell isn't their fault.
Sam Pfeifle can be reached at sam_pfeifle@yahoo.com.
EAGER TO PLEASE |Released by the Leftovers | with All the Real Girls + the Goodnight Process + the Stereo Flys | May 23 @ 9 pm | at the Empire, in Portland | www.myspace.com/theleftovers
Related:
Portland Music News: May 8, 2009, Music Seen: Ocean and Pontiak, Falling into you, More 
- Portland Music News: May 8, 2009
The weekend of May 23 is shaping up to be an important one in the local-music continuum.
- Music Seen: Ocean and Pontiak
The day after Ocean's predictably under-attended (30-40 people) Cinco de Mayo performance at SPACE, a friend who also attended asked what I thought. "So loud," I said. "So slow," he responded. It wasn't hard to catch the reverence in both reactions.
- Falling into you
Between Ron Harrity's skills as recording engineer, label guru (Peapod Recordings), and guitarist/sideman, he's racking up an impressive resume (see the accompanying review of the Isobell record for more details), and the new Honey Clouds record just adds to the list.
- Rise and fall
For years now, the Naked Shakespeare Ensemble has brought its signature fare — stripped-down productions and ravishingly acute attention to the Bard's language — into a slew of non-traditional settings, including the Wine Bar on Wharf Street, SPACE Gallery, and the Sacred and Profane festival.
- Bar food, with tunes
In offering us a new casual way to sample local culture — social and cultural, if not culinary — Empire is a welcome addition.
- The boy with no name
With a tidy five-song EP, More Time , Travis Kline is the newest entrant in Portland's burgeoning alt-country renaissance.
- Live: Catie Curtis + Meg Hutchinson
One Longfellow Square, December 14, 2008
- Rehearsing their choir
Epically twee, and then simply epic, "Comet Flies Over the Underbelly" — the fourth track on Lady Lamb the Beekeeper's Samples for Handsome Animals — is, for a minute or two, almost unbearable.
- Music Seen: Anticon's 10th anniversary
Sure, Ray LaMontagne is huge and the Rustic Overtones saw their national time, but there is something to be said for a record label co-founded by Mainers that is more than a decade old and can still sell out the Knitting Factory in New York City.
- Portland music news: January 9, 2009
Former WCLZ morning host PETE BOLDUC has a new band: GUNTHER BROWN (not to be confused with the Boston-based Sucka Brown).
- Portland music news: January 23, 2009
We know everyone's geeked up about that big rock photography exhibit at the PMA, but be sure also to check out an exhibit of local-rock photos by John Fahnley
- Less
Topics:
CD Reviews
, Brian Wilson, Brett Anderson, The Hold Steady, More
, Brian Wilson, Brett Anderson, The Hold Steady, Adam Woronoff, Andrew Rice, EMPIRE DINE AND DANCE, Portland music, The Leftovers, The Leftovers, Less
