AM/FM, Mutilate Us

One-sheets are a bitch. For those of you unfamiliar with them, one-sheets communicate to the reviewer of the record the pre-digested information that the record label or band promoter wants you to know about the band. AM/FM’s one-sheet prominently features a quote to the effect that they sound like “Pavement playing Pink Floyd songs at a picnic.” Well, I had no idea what that would sound like, so I put it in. And, with a couple exceptions, I can’t think of any other way to describe it now (assuming you define Pavement circa “Range Life” instead of, say, “Baptiss Blacktick”). Which leads me down all sorts of random paths, like: was this AM/FM’s goal? Was this market tested? Did they consider other options, like, say, Archers of Loaf playing King Crimson at a carnival? Slipknot playing Philip Glass at a NARAL rally? Or did it just work out that way?

I’m being silly, because I don’t have much else to say. In a way, the AM/FM moniker is very apt: it’s FM music filtered through an AM sensibility. Largely inoffensive, and if you’ve always wanted to hear Pavement playing Pink Floyd songs at a picnic, here you are.