The Color Bars - Making Playthings EP (Paranoiac Records)

The Color Bars: Making Playthings

The Color Bars: Making Playthings (Paranoiac Records)

The Color Bars
Making Playthings
(Paranoiac Records)

A New York band whose lead man (Gerald Slevin) plays more instruments on their eight track EP than the whole of The Strokes, is a bigger breath of fresh air than an air vent in an underground sewer. The Color Bars and their instrumentally eclectic brand of indie music is just what we need at the moment, in order to add a bit of variety to the scene. Instruments such as a harmonica, cello and cigarette pack are utilised, and give the indication that the increasingly tough task of sounding fresh in the modern music industry is achieved, with this brief but bright EP.

The sound of the NY quartet is a tantalising mixture of the fun, frivolity and vocal sound of the Beach Boys, mixing in the poignancy and seriousness of The Rolling Stones with the sheer mystery and wackiness of The Flaming Lips. One of the stand out tracks ‘All Your Kitchen Ghosts’ is a softly melodic number that utilises a variety of instruments and features sentimental lyrics portraying the fragility of being in love:

“Her clothes are flammable and her heart is a
gasoline tank, you couldn’t help but do her harm.”

The futility of fighting feelings of love and lust is looked at in ‘Eliza’ and the sinister Elvis Costello like; ‘She Disarmed Me‘ which compares falling in love to being bugged. All in all, this is a varied and intriguing brief foray into the wonderful and sincere musical world of The Color Bars.

David Adair

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