Philadelphia City Paper Interactive
Mono Puff - It's Fun To Steal
The big complaint dimwitted rock critics have enjoyed lodging against They Might Be Giants over the years has always be that the band is too intellectual for the general public, that its cleverness was somehow off-putting to the unwashed asses who made the Spice Girls a viable property. Perhaps TMBG's John Flansburgh had this on his mind when he created the high-hat, bass and effects-pedal-burdened side project Mono Puff. It's all been dumbed down for easy digestion. Various simulated late-'60s Kojak bar scene funk tricks and disco allusions are implemented on It's Fun To Steal to fill not only your ears, but that troublesome space between them as well.
"Night Security" hints at the sort of moody, brain music the band is capable of, but Flans doesn't even play or sing on this one. The torpedo that finally sinks the album is the charmless
New York-rules anthem, "Extra Crispy." Like the country's biggest, most celebrated city needs its big celebrated ass kissed again. Giants fans deserve and have the right to expect better
than this predictable pseudo-swankery, even from a side project.
- Patrick Rapa