Mollystongue

Mollystongue

Running Out Of People To Blame

Self-Released

There are several reasons to hate Mollystongue just by looking at them, or at least their publicity shot: our psychic mind and all-seeing eye sensed a cadre of snarky, late-20s/early-30s doods who have rapturously imbibed in all manner of suburban dorkdom. We're guessing they've racked up massive hours in their collective lifetimes playing Dungeons & Dragons, hanging Star Wars and Eddie Van Halen posters on their bedroom walls, attending the Renaissance Fair, memorizing Lord of the Rings passages (from the books, not the movies) and camping outside Ticketmaster outlets for Rush ducats.

We'd even bet some of these guys used to be in ska bands (several songs on this album sound suspiciously like old Jeffries Fan Club hits—okay, who swiped from whom?). Spin the CD and it turns out we're dead-on with some of our wild assumptions. They are snarky—awfully yet jovially so, with a sense of welcome humor and self-deprecating wit that too many local bands don't bother with, even when only Mollystongue could possibly find their jokes funny. So we're given songs such as "All Out of Bubblegum" (with a chorus that goes "Kick my ass! Go ahead! Kick my ass!"); "Ballad of PNS," a rock near-opera about driving up to Canada and getting busted for weed possession; and, proving what insatiable pop-culture junkies they are (and they are—we're positive no other song throughout future recorded history will ever drop Mr. T and Hüsker Dü), they lift entire lines from Say Anything more than once. But y'see, they're not mere 24-hour jokesters. They're serious, too—at least with "Adios," a breakup song that seethes cold, hard, fucked-up truth. Good tunes mostly; even smart, literate ones. Their website, though, can be more entertaining than their music, which probably ain't a good thing.

Contact: www.mollystongue.com; molly@mollystongue.com

—Rich Kane

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, 1666 N. Main St., Ste. 500, Santa Ana, CA 92701-7417.