Gigolo Aunts "Flippin' Out" 1994***

Now, just how much should I read into the fact that the Gigolo Aunts are mostly known for having a song in the soundtrack of "Dumb and Dumber?" I prefer to judge them from the fact that they chose the title of a Syd Barrett song as their name and actress Chloë Sevigny as their cover model. Chloë is prone to making some very alternative choices: Need I remind you the teenage HIV infected-drug swallowing-getting raped while passed out-heroine of Kids? Small town lesbian of Boys Don't Cry? Or her performing fellatio on screen in Brown Bunny? Well, the Gigolo Aunts proved to be much less controversial than their cover star. People often describe their sound as "power pop", a word that I always associate with Big Star. Do they sound anything like Big Star? Oh Yeah... but also Tom Petty, REM, Posies, the Replacements etc. The opening couple of songs ("Cope", "Lemon Peeler") are the hardest rocking of the bunch and really put me in the right mood but I found the following "Ride On Baby" rather uninteresting. Thankfully, even the mediocre songs in this CD are listenable thanks to some tasteful guitarwork. "Bloom" has a Byrdsy feel reminiscent of early REM and "Figurine" is another jangly folk-rocker. "Where I Find My Heaven" is the Dumb And Dumber track and really is too good to be associated with that movie, putting the "power" in the "pop" and justifying the Big Star comparisons. "Lullaby" follows the same recipe, with diminished success. "Mrs. Washington" is a sunny pop song and "Gun" a power-pop message for gun control. "Pin Cushion" is a rather faceless reprise of previous songs and the title track "Flippin' Out" is apparently a cover of an unreleased song by a group named Wizards - Ah, the good old days of The Basement Tapes, when unpublished songwriting gold circulated among artists in the form of bootleg tapes! Well, maybe not gold in this case, but certainly a sweet Beatles-y ballad. Nice is the keyword here...

**** for Cope, Where I Find My Heaven

*** for Lemon Peeler, Bloom, Figurine, Lullaby, Mrs. Washington, Gun, Flippin' Out

** for Ride On Baby Ride On, Pin Cushion