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If you've watched your fair share of Rugrats, you'll recognize the name of this Athens quartet. On the show, Reptar is a gigantic, green, Godzilla-esque dinosaur with a knack for pulverizing cityscapes. On their debut EP, Reptar are pretty much the exact sonic equivalent. "Blastoff" (bonus points for perfect song titles) is simply an un-fucking-believable opener — an exercise in demented excess that only gets better the more you peel it apart. There's minimal electronic plinking, looped caveman grunting, "Baba O'Riley" synths, prog-rock drum fills, funky bass, and a hilarious Jock Jams call-and-response climax that no sane band would dream of attempting. Luckily for us, Reptar are completely nuts. "Stuck in My ID" is more controlled and song-like, probably the closest thing to normalcy that they put their claws on. With an atom-bomb chorus hook, glorious mingling of synths, and tough disco beat, it could, in a just world, top the pop charts. But with any spectacular sugar rush comes an inevitable crash. The shaky vocal tirade midway through "RainBounce" was a bad choice, and acoustic-ramshackle closer "Phonetics" is about two minutes too long and a tad undercooked. But Reptar get a free pass — and you know why? These guys aren't afraid of fuck-ups. At its finest, Oblangle sounds like schizophrenic joy distilled into soundwaves, and you just can't put a price tag on that.
50 BANDS 50 STATES PICK: Georgia
REPTAR + FOSTER THE PEOPLE + CULTS | House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne St, Boston | September 29 @ 7 pm | $20 | All Ages | 888.693.2583
