Wiggle-Worthy

FELIX STRUCTURE
(SELF-TITLED THREE-SONG 12-INCH VINYL EP)

This is nervous, hyperactive music, and when their MC opens his mouth, he sounds like a fey Munchkin who has been secretly suckling on the helium tank at a neighbor kid's birthday party. . . . Oh, wait, we've got it on 45 rpm! Let's just flick this switch here and . . . Awwwww, yeah! Now the MC—he calls himself Alias Blackman—actually makes sense, dropping broadband-quick rhymes on the track "Prefab Superstars," a fun, funky, jazz-hop plea for some original sounds ("The problem is/We forget what music is/It's been replaced with this biz") while they carve a name out for themselves ("This is something with feeling/This is something from the depths of our soul"). Long trumpet honks add sweet chill-out accents, but the beats are still pumped up enough to make you wanna wiggle like a drunken assclown, even more on the second cut, "Thursday Nights." Blackman really gets to wag his tongue on "The Fall of Napoleon," which takes up the whole second side: he drops his lyrics so quickly and sharply and with such perfect timing that he reminds you what made rap so interesting and fresh in the first place (though we aren't sure why Napoleon gets name-checked—some kind of obtuse allegory, we'll guess). Felix Structure are that rare local act, one who make music for lovers of both beats and words.

Info: (562) 259-1928; www.felixstructure.com; info@felixstructure.com. Felix Structure perform at the Prospector, 2400 E. Seventh St., Long Beach, (562) 438-3839. Tues., 11 p.m. Call for cover. 21+; and at Live Bait, 6251 E. Pacific Coast Hwy., Long Beach, (562) 594-6775. July 12, 8 p.m. Call for cover. 18+.

OC and Long Beach bands and musicians! Mail your CDs and tapes (along with your vital contact info, plus any impending performance dates) for possible review to: Locals Only, OC Weekly, P.O. Box 10788, Costa Mesa, CA 92627-0247.