Hummer

More indie-hip-hop noodling from Fog on their HUMMER EP. They haven't lost any of their eclecticness, as evident by the messy "Whom That Hits Walls." But the title track, with its reversed beat, goes for a more melancholy tone, despite the Dada lyrics. "Melted Crayons" contrasts an minimal beat with sing-song lyrics -- an interesting experiment, but not quite all together. Contrast that to the almost pure folk of "Cockeyed Cookie Pusher" (well, at least until it climaxes). And finally, "Stink of Kings" takes a deep, lo-fi path that doesn't as much close out the EP as it just runs out of breath. A hot mess, but an interesting one.

Perhaps it's the fact that I've convinced myself that Fog read Stephen Jay Gould's entire oeuvre before making this album or perhaps it's the fact that Fog can take childhood & adolescent moments, weave them into a deft brief lyric and not have it sound trite or BrightEyes-ish or perhaps it's the rage I feel everytime I walk into Crossroads music in downtown Blacksburg, Virginia and find this album listed in the 'indie-hip-hop' section (I mean, what the f@ck?) regardless of the number of times I've told the faux-hipster staff that Fog does not belong there that I love this album.Look, it comes down to this--do you want pop-subbaculcha or innovation? If the latter, dig into Fog; if the former, go buy the Arcade Fire.

First, of all, I would like to applaud Andrew Broder, the man behind Fog, for making an EP worth buying. This thing has 30 minutes of new songs, and no remix crap. I think almost every band can learn a thing or two from this guy... Now, onto the actual music.The CD opens with the fabulous "Whom That Hits Walls," which sounds like a mixture of Need New Body and cLOUDDEAD. Bizzaro free jazz meets ambient trip-hop, and it really works. However, the EP goes a bit downhill from there. It's a little hard to describe but...it turns into one of those albums that you get all excited about and tell your friends that they have to hear it, and they're like "what's so great about this?" Then, you say, "NO NO NO! Just wait, wait for the really cool part." The part comes, and everyone is like "whoa, that was pretty cool...too bad it was only 20 seconds long." Don't get me wrong! Those cool parts are REALLY cool (when the 'orchestra' of typewriters comes in on "Cockeyed Cookie Pusher," you just can't help but feel all fuzzy). However, sometimes the CD is too ambient, and unnecessary.thezane of IndieTech.com