Built By Snow - MEGA (2009)

Built By Snow is an indie rock band that hails from Austin, Texas. I got an email from one of the guys in the band and loved how he described Built By Snow's sound: 'Catchy keyboard rock with an explosion of velcro melodies and magnetic pop hooks that hit your brain like an Atari blasting out of a bazooka.' This sounded like the sort of music I could get into!

The songs don't tend to last beyond two and a half minutes but they're definitely not short on quality. The opening instrumental track 'Giant Robot Attack' sounds charmingly like an old-school Nintendo game, but beefed up with guitars and hand claps. It acts as a sort of intro to 'Something In 3D,' which keeps the 8-bit sounds going amidst psychedelic lyrics about 'fighting asteroids with my mind' and 'dreaming in 3D.' Bizarrely catchy!

The hand-clap-happy 'All The Weird Kids Know' (great title!) has perhaps my favorite lyric on an album rife with fun one-liners - 'just like Pac-Man my brain eats beats'! 'Implode Alright' starts off sounding like Pong or something, but don't let the cheery bleeps fool you - this is a rather tender song. 'a-beta' comes next and demands that you 'put your Walkman on and save the world from a smart invasion' in the morning. I know that I certainly do nothing less of a morn! ;) Great distorted guitars and walloping drums keep this track chugging along.

I just love the lyrics on MEGA. 'Algometric Touch' somehow manages to use algometry, a way to measure pain sensitivity, in a love song! (I can't lie, I had to look up 'algometry' to make sure of what it was. I like music that makes me think. :) ) 'Algometric Touch' sounds kinda like someone electrocuted the Beach Boys - and I like it!

More punchy hand claps and buzzing synths drive the next tune, 'Invaders.' Even with its bleeping melody line, 'Invaders' has more of a 'rock' sound than the rest of the 'electronic rock' tracks. 'Science Of Love' is full of blips and blops and shouts of 'we are magnets!', which in its nonsense somehow makes perfect sense! 'Attachment' marks the end of the album and works also as kind of a come-down from the highs of 'Science Of Love.' Glitchy snippets finish off the last few seconds of the track, and there you are, wanting to listen to it all over again.

You can find Built By Snow on their official website and MySpace, and can buy MEGA (which will be released on January 20) on iTunes or at one of the vendors on their site. :)

Cheery bye, Scarlett

Built By Snow - MEGA (2009)