Album a Day: !!! - Strange Weather, Isn't It?

When I think of the Sacramento-native !!! (this is the place in a review where they normally tell you how to pronounce the band's name) my mind immediately goes to "dance epic". Now this can be taken a number of ways: on the one hand you can take this words in tandem to mean that the music of !!! is a "dance epic" in the same vein as a "rock opera" but much more like"Thriller" or Xanadu. On the other hand we can simply break down that the music is epic and you happen to be able to dance to it. The former referring more to a planned act of something conceptual and the latter being a series of descriptive yet seemingly unrelated adjectives. To this analysis I say that all of the above is true and exemplified so well in this brand-new album, Strange Weather, Isn't It? from the dance-punk nightmare of !!!. First formed in 1996 from an amalgamation of other local Sacramento bands such as Black Liquorice, Popesmashers, and hardcore-act Yah Mos, !!! would eventually release four albums between 2000 and 2010 starting with a self-titled album and inevitably winding up here with what I would say is perhaps their most mature work to date. The band has continued strongly with their signature blend of funk and electro-pop fused with elements of punk and hardcore (its ok to tell me that those two genres are the same but others may punch you in the solar plexus for that statement). What I'd say is different between this album and previous ones is that I think !!! continues to just own it more. That is say that while previous albums may feel like a track playing in a club, I would equate this album much more to the down-the-street-strut of Tony Manero. To me Strange Weather, Isn't It? elicits a very visceral reaction that not only makes me want to dance but rather boogie with the cosmos or simply melt away into a montage of the Big Bang (I can't help if my visceral reactions mostly have to do with space). I love this album and the continued quirkiness of the band. I love that there's a very poetic quality to !!! but less W.H. Auden and more Jack Kerouac. Sonically the eight-piece ensemble is able to create an album that is very layered as is demonstrated on the uplifting "Steady As The Sidewalk Cracks" but comes off as very bare and minimalist as exemplified on the more down-tempo "Hollow" that allows the listener to crawl somewhere between the cracks of the music like having a cave amongst the layers. "Hollow" is one of my favorite tracks as the song, like many of the songs on the album, not only takes from a place of those great decades of funk but also has a very 90's sensibility to it not only with the sampling but the pace of the music as well. The other previously mentioned track "Steady As The Sidewalk Cracks" also has that sensibility, reminiscent of the Sting's "Shape of My Heart" but jazzed up and mixed with a bit of Jackie Wilson's "Higher and Higher". My favorite track on the CD may be the much more disco-flavored "Even Judas Gave Jesus a Kiss" not only for its obvious tongue-in-cheek blasphemy, which I'm always a fan of, but to look beyond that silliness you see a genuine song questioning aspects of Christanity, history, and how that relates to much more modern concepts. !!! has the ability to make you smile and think all while sticking their tongues out in a playful yet punk kind of way, which is why they have continued to be successful with one of the more intense dance albums I've heard in quite a while. Favorite Tracks: Jamie, My Intentions Are Bass, Hollow, Even Judas Gave Jesus a Kiss, Steady As The Sidewalk Cracks, and AM/FM