The Curse of Company might sound like something that families are forced to endure during the holidays, but the Australian band of the same name is actually made up of Dappled Cities co-frontman David Rennick, Tim Rogers, Danny Heifetz of Mr. Bungle fame and The Red Sun Band’s Sarah Kelly. With a lineup like that you might expect to hear some great pop music, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. The good news is that what they lack in the pop-tastic tunes area, the outfit more than makes up for it on the creative side, fine-tuning atmospheric melodies and vocal harmonies into a nice, dark and intimate blend.
Swirling a variety of genres into their music, one can hear hints of various influences ranging from The Velvet Underground, Wilco and Nick Cave delicately positioned all over the record. “The Parade Devine” begins our journey into the world created by The Curse of Company, and remains one of our favorites off the record after multiple listens. The waltzy “Side By Side” creeps in much to our delight, and on one of the most upbeat tracks on the album, “Homecoming,” a pounding percussion and the angelic intertwining vocals of Sarah and David carry us along. “All The Mines,” the song that was made available as a free download on the band’s site last May, sounds just as fresh as when we heard it for the first time.
Probably the best thing about Leo Magnets Joins A Gang is that the music actually makes it pretty easy to envision yourself at a live gig of theirs at a small dark club. Too bad we probably won’t get to experience it for ourselves unless we go to Australia.
MP3 Download – “All The Mines”
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