Thanks to a heads-up from a friend in New Zealand, I’ve been listening to a NZ band called The Mint Chicks. I checked out their songs on MySpace, and watched some videos on amplifier.co.nz, which seems to be the cheapest NZ CD store. (Sidenote: There’s a 12.5% tax on apparently everything there. If you ship to the US, its actually cheaper than buying it in the country… Well, it can be, if you buy enough. Whatever.)

Anyhow, I decided I liked them. Listening to stuff on MySpace is only sorta like actually listening to it, so I had to track down a record here in Chicago. I’d love to hear their new album, called, I believe, Crazy? Yes. Dumb? No. or something similiar. It seems like it’ll be the most to my taste. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find their new record anywhere in Chicago, though I didn’t really look that hard. I did, however, find their Anti-Tiger ep from 2004 at Reckless, so I drove out there to pick it up. (There’s still 1 copy left! Only $4.99!) The first track is just noise, which makes sense to me on an album, but less sense on what would otherwise be a filler-free EP. No big deal though, its pleasant enough noise. “Blue Team Go!”, the second song, has a video on amplifier that I can’t seem to be able to watch. It’s a little screamy for my tastes, but its fun. I really dig “Anti-Tiger”, it’s reallly got a cool Devo-vibe, like much of the Mint Chick’s best stuff does. It’s a louder, faster, and dirtier Devo, and it’s rad. The more this band is like Devo the more I like them. “Opium of the People” is pretty good too, with again an early 80s sorta spazzy post-punk vibe. Feels kinda like the Cure to me. “Fake Up” is again sorta screamy, but the last track makes up for it by just being a nice, quieter pop song. My kinda thing, you know. “The Perfect Machine”, its called, also kinda reminds me of The Clean, but I might just be saying that cause they’re both not from Australia. From what I’ve heard on MySpace and the reviews that I’ve read, I think their new record has more of the pop vibe.

They’re playing in New York while I’m there, three times, including the same “venue” as Fellow Project, just one week later. The show on the 24th is either at Union Pool or Glasslands, but it’s a little unclear to me which it is. The Mint Chicks says its Union Pool, but Union Pool says someone else is playing there that night (the 24th), and a band the Mint Chicks are supposedly playing with are playing at Glasslands. As long as they play somewhere. I hope to see them at least once, but if I get stoked I might have to become a Mint Chick Groupie and follow them all over downstate NY.
Here’s a video from what I’m pretty sure is their new album:

My newfound interest in this band also resparked my infatuation with The Clean. That really never goes away, just sometimes I forget how good they are. I just bought the Getaway, so I’ll have to give it a listen tonight when I read Stop Smiling.

UPDATE: I reread the post to look for grammar errors and whatnot, so it probably still has some. I didn’t really intend to write such a straight-up record review. Since I did, I should give it a grade. How about a B+? I think that’s fair.

I’m starting to get anxious about the new record. I wish I could find it here. I am not going to get it on iTunes. Period. Anyhow, here’s what some other folks have to say: