Glancing over their official site, it’s not hard to be both disconcerted and turned on by the awkward web layout and harmonious moaning that is Molly Shannon, Molly Shannon. A Seattle-based band whose style is warped, sublime, and unnatural in every way. It’s Radiohead’s bastardized love affair with Explosions in the Sky, but with much, much more vodka. Go ahead and listen for yourself. Try out “Jane Cannary”, just one of many tracks the band offers up for listen.

[Photo: Kyle M. Peterson]

My comparisons aren’t so off now, are they? Of course not. Molly Shannon, Molly Shannon is everything the said actress isn’t: interesting, inviting, and idyllic. This is a band more on composition than presentation, despite the David Lynch-esque web space. Excited yet? I am.

You Think yr The Doctor, I Think I’m The Sheriff is an ambitious release from the Seattle gang. Twelve songs that offer a far more complex assortment of moods, depending on the night and context. The release is frightening. Downright chilling to the bone, at times, especially in the eerie, somber “Yvonne Craig”, or the monotonous, yet pulling “Debbie “Debra” Gibson.” The latter sounding a bit like Velvet Underground (think “Heroin”).

Considering each title track is the name for a different woman, one should take each song with ease. It’s not an album to listen to consistently or as a whole, but perhaps as a sampling. Is this experimental music? Perhaps. Not literally, but conceptually. These are songs that should be taken one by one, as if you were dating them, which is fitting given the track’s titles.

Molly Shannon, Molly Shannon is something exciting to watch. Mainly because, while as interesting of a project they’re running, it’s not exactly breaking the fourth wall. They have only a handful of MySpace friends, their information gives them no background whatsoever, and they’re only promising shows in March.

But maybe, that’s what we need musically these days: a mystery.

[MySpace]

[Official Site]

Check Out:
“Debbie ‘Debra’ Gibson”

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