I eat fools like Reptar

Architecture in Helsinki - The Owls Go



Sufjan Stevens - Romulus



Grandaddy - Stray Dog and the Chocolate Shake



Bonnie "Prince" Billy - A Minor Place

Remember how 20 years ago, every indie rock band sounded like the Velvet Underground?? Jesus and Mary Chain, Galaxie 500, Echo and the Bunnymen, Sonic Youth; these musicians have Lou Reed's template to thank for their hipster lofts, hybrid cars, vegan diets, and dental insurance (looks like you picked the wrong horse, Shane Macgowan). Fifteen years later, a similar revival took place, with bands like the Strokes and Black Rebel Motorcycle club making sonic statements hugely indebted to waters first charted by Television's "Marquee Moon". We're currently in the midst of another such wave, though only a man of keen insight, vast knowledge of the history of recorded music, and a pop can- dick would be perceptive enough to spot the inspiration: Mark Mothersbaugh's theme from Rugrats.

Mothersbaugh, founding member of Cleveland post-punks Devo, traded his flower-pot head gear and his MENSA membership for a xylophone and a prolific soundtrack-scoring gig about 10 years ago. Since then, he's greatly inflated his profile by dropping aural backgrounds into Nickelodeon television, Wes Anderson movies, and all points in between. His signature sound, (playful tinkling piano, floods of soft-pitch percussion, and multi-layered lo-fi production) bears striking resemblance to various bands on the hipster du jour profile. What these people fail to realize, however, was that Tommy, Angelica, Chuckie, Phil, and Lil, were all hip to his game long before the skinny tie crowd.