The Hathaway Family Plot

Toy instruments, theremins, vuvuzelas, mandolins, kitchen utensils, instruments I never heard of (Otamatones? Psalteries?) join keyboards and percussion to create a fantastic home-brew internet giveaway that is finally out today - today! - courtesy of WMRecordings.

I received an advance copy of this album by Buffalo, New York's The Hathaway Family Plot a month or so ago and have been steadily diggin' it ever since. Every track is a new adventure: the Residential guitars of the opener back a distraught, distorted vocal, the suitably noisy "Noise Complaint" followed by lovely vibraphone lounge, Fripp-esque guitar drones, vocals that sound like The Chipmunks being put thru a meat grinder, R2D2-ish electronics, and general assorted buzzes, whistles, and throbbing drums. The song "Home" is a moving, evocative electronic meditation. The last track is the only non-original, a Sparklehorse cover featuring a forlorn toy piano plunking away at lost childhood memories.

There's a welcome righteous fury at the bill of goods we've been sold that fuels The Hathaway Family Plot, a bitter cynicism at the idea that we are what we buy. There are no "financial crises." There are a handful of people who have set plans in motion to make themselves very, very rich. And they have succeeded. So what if thousands lose their homes and their retirement in the process? Collateral damage. Can't be helped, sorry. Before the recent "housing crisis," there was Enron, junk-bonds, etc., etc. And nothing will change because, as we all know, regulation is socialism. And that leads to eating children in Satanic sacrifices. So shop 'til you drop!

The Hathaway Family Plot "Debt"

Also available courtesy of the Free Music Archive.