steering clear of the mainstream
since 2001

june 2010

review
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info opinion

Cars Can Be Blue

"All The Stuff We Do" CD

Happy Happy Birthday To Me

Genre: indie pop

Omega Point
4707 N. Springfield, 2F
Chicago, IL 60625
USA

May 2006

Fresh from the Happy Happy Birthday To Me staple comes this cute but daring pop band, responsible for this twenty-song, thirty-minute romp that combines cheery music with some pretty raunchy lyrical fare. Tullycraft and Boyracer come to mind as points of comparison, with Cars Can Be Blue clearly putting melody and silliness high on their list of priorities. The boy/girl dynamic (Nate Mitchell and Becky Brooks) works well - both in terms of musical fare and lovely harmonies - and the songs' simplicity is what really makes All The Stuff We Do a charming release. The funny "Dating Batman" is a particular favourite (infectious hooks back clever lines like "met him last week at a superhero dance/he said I can see myself in your pants/thought he'd have a better line than this/but you can't say no to batman so I gave him a kiss"). Other topics include the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (actually just a cover of the theme song), unprotected sex ("well her figure just keeps getting bigger/bigger every day/and i think maybe we gotta kill that baby/before it gets in the way"), hippies, and even the mentally ill. The words to the songs can be pretty damn offensive, but that just helps make the zippy pop that extra bit more ironic. This is ultimately pretty impressive music, and while it can often hit a few sensitive spots (depending on your PC radar), it's all good fun if you give your prejudices a toss out the door.

MP3s (from hhtbm.com): Used To Think

84%

Fun Fact: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were created in a self-published single-issue comic by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, who intended the turtles to be a parody of comics New Mutants (about a group of teenage mutants) and Daredevil (which was about ninja clans.)

Matt Shimmer

[Vitals: 20 tracks, distributed by the label, released 2005]