Polyester Pimpstrap - self-titled

Posted by: Anonymous | January 8th, 2008

From the first verse of the opening "Psycho Ave," Polyester Pimpstrap's self-titled disc screams youth. A jamband and quite proud of it, the Florida quintet makes a point to inject their "jamband booty music" with a laundry list of influences. Just as you'd expect from a self-proclaimed jamband, the upstarts utilize well-constructed instrumental passages broken up by guitarist/vocalist Dante Soriano's surreal musings that are not sung as often as they are proclaimed. Beyond the standard rock song structures, the album is a diverse ride through moody guitar rock, jazz grooves, reggae strums, hip-hop, and more.
"Psycho Ave." dabbles in and out of reggae and rock, while "#7" twinkles with jazzy keys and dark moods reminiscent of Steely Dan. The vocals, however, remain firmly rooted in the modern, with a bit of spoken-word and hip-hop inflection. Adrian Crutchfield's saxophone is featured on the quick-n-groovy "My Brother," while Soriano's guitar and J.B. Lawrence's keys lead the way on the chugging "Serve It For Dinner." It's all what you'd expect until the pulsing G-funk beat of "Space Grease" begins. "Space Grease" shows the band's willingness to marry ideas - just like a good-time jamband should. Though it is but an interlude, "Space Grease" says as much about Polyester Pimpstrap as any fully-fleshed track on the album, sounding like Dr. Dre meets basement band practice, but in a good way.

The band rides the hip-hop vibe into the next track, "The Gap," which links a shot of hip-hop lyricism with a steadily diverging instrumental track that morphs from rhythmic bedrock to a shifting jazz-rock excursion. Lest the listener think their journey over after such an exhausting sound journey, the band rounds a corner into island-tinged blues ("Hard Life Living"), unhinged tomfoolery ("Soap On The Fridge"), and epic multi-part storytelling ("False"). For a young, shamelessly jamtastic band on their debut CD, I'd expect nothing less than the stylistic variety found here.

--Bryan Rodgers