Waves of dark, shimmering guitar riffs cascade over you as
the Walkmen conjure up ghosts of
the Velvet Underground on "They're Winning," the introduction to the band's debut, Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone. Made up of three survivors of the industry's one-time "future of
rock & roll" band,
Jonathan Fire*Eater (organist
Walter Martin, guitarist
Paul Maroon, and drummer
Matt Barrick), along with bassist
Peter Bauer and vocalist
Hamilton Leithauser,
the Walkmen combine the aforementioned group's skewed
mod rock minus the major-label polish. Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone points at the band's roots -- New York City's late-'70s/early-'80s
CBGB's scene. It is not so much that
the Walkmen sound like
Television or
the Talking Heads or
Blondie, but that they, like their NYC peers
Interpol,
the French Kicks, and
Radio 4, evoke the gritty, urban energy so well. "Wake Up," previously released on the band's debut EP, is downright eerie as vocalist
Hamilton Leithauser moans over the twisting melody. The title track is an intense spiral of
space rock with spare but melodramatic string flourishes. "Revenge Wears No Wristwatch" is so stripped that it is propelled almost entirely by the drumbeat. "The Blizzard of '96," "Stop Talking," and the strangely catchy "We've Been Had" chime like a broken music box with an off-kilter, storybook glimmer. What world do these songs come from? Clearly, it is someplace magical -- a
Tim Burton dream, a
Wim Wenders skyline, maybe a comic book Gotham or manga artist
Paul Pope's futuristic curry-scented, Tokyo-ized New York City. But, wherever it is, you'll be drawn into the parallel universe as soon as you push "play." ~ Charles Spano, All Music Guide
