Label: Spunk! Format: CDS
Trans Am must be the most versatile trio ever to call themselves a band. Who Do We Think You Are? is a terrific little six song showing of this as our boys slip slide right through thirty years worth of musical genres in less than an hour. A fast glance to the almighty (if slightly irritating) vocoder and little dips here and there in the humourous pool of Devo-style electronics and it’s on and on through a world of influences which must be as wide apart as Scorpions and Foetus. Maybe even a little Gothic kind of New Romantic cross-breed hybrid of Bolan style glam and the all-Amerikan Mr. Hendrix.
Whenever I listen to Trans Am I simply do not know what to think other than that I love them. With literally something for everyone, who wouldn’t? This EP, as with the other recordings I’ve heard and strongly recommend, is such a trip of different styles and sounds that it is a magical wonder how the group manage to be so diverse while still staking claim to a very distinctive sound of their own. Much is said of Sebastian Thomason‘s awesome thrust rush drumming and it may be this that sets them apart and gives the band an identity which surpasses all the styles they are covering. Certainly Thomason is a force of percussion genius who beats the hell out of …well, everything. Still it must be noted that he is not alone and that Philip Manley and Nathan Means do join (possibly at the hips) with Sebastian to form one of the most well put together bands that I have ever loved.
-Lilly Novak-
