The Mooney Suzuki: Electric Sweat

The title of The Mooney Suzuki's second album, Electric Sweat, should give some idea where the New York neo-garage band lives, appropriately evoking images of old clothes, unkempt hair, and loud music with handclaps. The Mooney Suzuki cooks up the essence of retro adolescent hormonal surge, and makes music that's all "go," recalling an out-past-curfew, hours-before-bedtime moment. Electric Sweat opens with a low feedback hum that raises in volume as it mutates into a Stooges-like fuzztone riff. This is the title track—all pounding two-chord frenzy, with a distorted guitar freakout in the middle that dwindles to a drone before reverting to the riff that started the song. It's all sensation at first, but the purpose clarifies itself late in the record, with the instrumental "It's Showtime Pt. II" sounding like Booker T. & The MG's jamming with Cream. The Mooney Suzuki has followed the path of the Britpop legends of the late '60s, relearning the lesson that frivolous music can have an almost wrathful power when cranked up to thunderstorm levels. And though the group doesn't find the level of personal expression that's converted The White Stripes into a star cult act, it's at the head of the class of minor-league neo-garage bands, on a par with Cincinnati's The Greenhornes or Nashville's The Obscure. What distinguishes The Mooney Suzuki's brand of maximum R&B is the liveliness of its twin-guitar attack, at its best in the blistering, howling "A Little Bit Of Love" or the whirling, punishing "I Woke Up This Mornin'," or even just in the way the rush of sound sharpens to stabbing points over the chorus of "In A Young Man's Mind." Electric Sweat's one moment of pure rock glory can be found in the up-tempo ballad "Oh Sweet Susanna," with its tire-skid guitar sting and frug-friendly shuffle. When the song tails off after three and a half minutes, it doesn't matter whether the band is stuck in the past, perpetually recycling. What matters is that the song demands to be played again and again.