When I was first introduced to King Kong, as a high school kid playing shitty metal riffs in the basement of a friend's house, I missed the point completely. But listening to Buncha Beans, the band's first album in five years, brings me back to those pot-smoking days of rebellion. The music of King Kong -- formed in the late '80s by bass player Ethan Buckler after he left Slint to form a band that focused on dance rock -- needs to be taken with a grain of salt. It's party music; stop trying to analyze it as an epiphany from the prodigal son of gleaming, literary lyricism. So, you can listen to "Bug Make" as a metaphor for making your way through a hefty world, or you can realize that the snare is pulsating, the bass is bubblin' through your bones, and the guitars are screaming at your goddamn shoes to shake. I urge anybody who's compelled to analyze Bunch Beans to pass over it, leaving it to those of us who need a relief from the seriousness of our everyday existence.

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Band: http://www.kingkongtheband.com

Label: http://www.dragcity.com/