Skeletons and the Girl-Faced Boys

"Git"

(Ghostly / Shinkoyo)

Record Review by Adam McKibbin

Matt Mehlan has a soft spot for exotic instruments and forgotten synthesizers, and he thinks a flute is a more interesting destination for grunge riffs than a guitar.  Despite this, he perceives himself as a pop musician, and there’s plenty on “Git” to support his claim.  He’s not making Top 40 fare, of course, but he’s also not living in the avant-fringe that shuns structure and melody (though, if pushed, it’d be easier to picture him setting up a tent in the latter camp than in the former).

Mehlan, the iconoclastic ringleader of Skeletons (and the Shinkoyo label), has eschewed earlier solo paths and given the Girl-Faced Boys a full-time gig.  It’s a happy marriage.  The tweaky, ambient “There’s A Fly In Your Soup and I Put It There” carries a distinct echo of Figurine’s “International Space Station II,” and, like that band, Skeletons and the Girl-Faced Boys always find the human heart beating beneath the electronics and experimentation.

“Y’All Thinks It’s Soo Easy” begins with frantic percussion, a cross between tribal or world music and the sweaty rave-up of LCD Soundsystem.  After briefly shifting into jaunty synth-pop, the song segues seamlessly into “There Are Seagulls Who Live In Parking Lots,” electronic music laden with embellishments; bleating horns, Pac-Man synths, and eccentric vocal harmonies.  “There are people with perfect vision,” Mehlan sings tranquilly on the chorus, before singing the song’s title with casual import, as though his meaning was clear. 

The opaqueness of the lyrics doesn’t keep them from being oddly affecting.  On the invigorating opener (“See The Way”), there’s a lovely moment when the falsetto harmonies cut away and Mehlan is left alone to sing, “I always forget what she looks like / Her voice is / Her voice is always chan-ging.”  It’s one of several indelible moments that remain long after “Git” has finished its spin.