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Abe Vigoda "Animal Ghosts" (Track Review)

6:05 a.m. · January 24, 2008 · by Jeff Klingman

One of the more surprising subplots in 2007's indie almanac was the vast desert wasteland of Los Angeles finally snapping out of its long malaise to cough up a vital underground scene. Buried down below flash-in-the-pan blog-bait like Silversun Pickups, those combative tectonic plates churned up a gaggle of prickly fuzz punks such as No Age, Mika Miko, HEALTH, and my current point of focus Abe Vigoda. Like their fellow Angelinos, honest Abe have been playing near constant D.I.Y. gigs and spreading 7" singles out among a variety of different vinyl imprints. Their latest record (from the painfully hip Post Present Medium label) came out late last year, though it had escaped my attention until quite recently (apologies, apologies).

Though "Animal Ghosts" features fast and tinny vocals recalling No Age's sound and similarly surprising variability within such a short track, Vigoda doesn't hang back in a wash of white noise patiently waiting to strike. The song's group chants have a feel of breathless excitability, like a little kid who wants to tell you a story so bad that he jumbles all the details. Once discerned, the words are slightly new-agey, such as "hope is a white hand that moves through my body." But the complex and jubilant beats are the true selling point. And when their cries climax in a mantra of "I love my life," it's too convicted for us cynics to glibly belittle.