Vinyl Review: "Code Word" by The Moles

Code Word

Famous face painter and noted lip syncer, Gene Simmons, has stated many times that rock is dead.

His partner, slightly less famous kabuki facer and even bigger lip syncer, Paul Stanley has said that ASCAP and the music industry should be taking care of the up and comers.

Much like Kiss's stance on lip syncing, their takes on what is happening in the world of new music is, shall we say, fractured?

Those faking old fogies aren't the only ones out there who're a bit concerned, confused, or outright wrong about the world of rock music though.

One just has to peruse Bandcamp, the blogosphere, or any social media outlet, they're going to find about 15,000,000 million new bands to check through. It's impossible to not find a single one to enjoy and fall in love with.  That's my current State of the Musical Union Speech.

Now, if you're an underground indie rock legend with a lot of friends and a record to make..... what could you do?

Obviously you get into contact with Super Secret Records out of Austin, TX and tell them all about your plans. Once the plans are all green lighted, the other problem has to be mentioned.

All of those friends are in several different cities among two countries. OK...so the Moles are located in Oakland, Phoenix, Santa Fe, Austin, Detroit, Mexico City, East Hampton, New York City, and Somerville, MA.

Well, who said making a rockin' album was ever going to be easy?

What this diverse group of musicians does is take Richard Davies's cool lo-fi works and flesh them out into something bigger. Since some of this is from Texas, I mean, bigger is better right?

There are TWENTY THREE different players on the back cover of this record. Twenty Three.

There as many moles as there are players on an NHL Hockey team.

These several gentlemen have conspired to solve on of the greatest problems in genre music. Lo-Fi Rock can get monotonous after a time. There are only so many chords you know?

When the band is peopled with several different folks the vibes are different and the songs gain a new depth and the color palette features a much greater expanse.

And expansive it is.

Besides the expected fuzzy pop sounds, there are country bits, a little bit of Mexico, and then there's the other worldly Richard 6.0. That one has quite an interesting tale that I'm not going to give you. It's listed in the liner notes and this story will amaze you.

That particular track is pretty much the bedrock this two LP set is based on for me. It's strange, cool, and a wholly original work.

In an era of people riding the backs of others, musicians attempting to recreate/rewrite the past, The Moles have given us a gem that harkens back to earlier days while looking forward to the future.

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