Favorite Albums: 2000-2004
31. Bumblebeez 81, Printz
Original position on my Stylus ballot: #12
If you’re tired of hearing about albums that revolve around familiar fixations of those stuck between generations X and Y, you might as well jump ship now. For instance, this is an album that sounds like a Mario Caldato, Jr remix of Royal Trux. If these words mean nothing to you, congratulations, you weren’t immersed in the alternapop moment of the late 90s. You don’t have any interest in something that, had it been released when its sound had some zeitgeist, would have had a video directed by Evan Bernard introduced by Matt Pinfield a few hours before real people had to wake up for work Monday morning. You either refuse to indulge in nostalgia and/or you’re not a dork around 30. Scroll on!
The funny thing is, I like Printz on the whole more than just about anything pooped out by Grand Royal in its heyday, not to mention Royal Trux. It’s not instantly clear why this Australian duo’s loops, acoustic guitar strums and distorted shouts of “I come with water to put out your fire!” and “I met my baby in Brooklyn!” appeal more than most of the Mellow Gold-ery of actual Brooklynites, not to mention most of Mellow Gold. It’s breezy and beaty but also blurred - a hazy, half-remembered soundscape that never sags. Basically all the nice things Christgau says about the Latin Playboys, except their roots are the tail end of 120 Minutes.
