The Dodos - Visiter

Rating:

* * * *

San Francisco duo the Dodos love making a racket. It's not your typical, turn it up to 11-type noise, more an enthusiastic clatter that works itself into a berserk lather and explodes.

Visiter

is at times lo-fi folk rock, at others beautifully acoustic and psychedelic but be warned,  it also gives way to discord and din.

Seven-minute

Joe's Waltz

starts with a dulcet guitar strum and gentle voice, then moves into a barking, distorted, rumble and ends with a whooping, screaming howl. Then there's drummer Logan Kroeber who, instead of smashing the living daylights out of his skins,   taps the metal edge of his snare drum. It's  common practice among drummers but when you execute it like a mad metronome it not only gets under your skin, it penetrates your bone marrow.

The way they beat and pound

Paint the Rust

into submission makes you feel sorry for the song. But it's somehow exhilarating too.

These lads sure know how to be obnoxious but in this case it's a redeeming quality because it's what makes them unique.

Scott Kara