If anyone is looking for an amazingly eclectic album from a time warp 60's Liverpool garage band band that takes cues from the likes of the Doors, Frank Zappa and the Mamas, Captain Beefheart and early Syd-era Pink Floyd, look no further than The Coral. I have been seeing them all around lately. I saw them on Conan last night doing their soulful, catchy garage/doo-wop tune, "Dreaming Of You". I recieved a compilation with them on it a few months ago with their bizaro-schitzo quirk of "Skeleton Key," which I fell for since I am a big fan of crazy unique pop music that walks the knife-edge of catchy convention and unconventional artistry (for example: the Super Furry Animals, Radiohead, Guided By Voices, the White Stripes, Pink Floyd, Jefferson Airplane, Neutral Milk Hotel, Grandaddy, Soul Coughing, Captain Beefheart, the Beatles and Gomez to rattle off a few). Their sound is very youthful and energizing which I am sure could be attributed pretty safely to the fact that 5 of the 6 members are still teenagers. Frontman James Skelly in an article in CMJ Monthly said of their sound formation, "I think there's a reaction against bands like Radiohead. Not Radiohead themselves, but all the bands that have copied Radiohead in Britain. So, in a way, we were influenced by Radiohead, by trying as hard as we could not to sound like them." I hate to try to explain their sound like I would hate to describe Captain Beefheart's sound like I would hate to describe the Beatle's sound, so just go out and pick up their album, "The Coral" released in the US on March 3rd. And burn it for me!! Pleeeeease. Hahahahaha. Ciao for now.

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