Vitamin Pets are a weirdo garage rock band from Boone, North
Carolina. Oddly enough, although I got this tape to review at random I lived in
Boone up until last year while attending school. They were just getting started
as I was on my way out of town, so I never saw them play a show. Now I kind of
wish I did. Not all college town bands are created equal. Some are better than
others. Vitamin Pets are one of those that makes the “better than” side of that
statement.
Side A starts with a theme song that is heavily indebted to
Southern gospel and Appalachian folk music but soaked in irony. It’s a fun,
lighthearted way to start the tape. They later revisit their folk influences on
the side B song “Dig a Hole” in a much more sincere manner.
In general, the whole tape felt like a tale of two sides to
me. Side A featured a lot of talking, spoken word, and distorted audio over the
instrumentation and singing. Sometimes multiple voices were layered on top of
each other in a way that made it hard to keep up with. While that is probably
what they were going for, it got even more untenable to keep up with when
samples and original audio were spliced into sound collages. These were
somewhat amusing but didn’t really do much else. The highlight of side A was
the song “Forrest/Mountain”. It was unspoiled by the audio catharsis occurring
around it.
The B side felt like a reward for getting through all of
that. Vitamin Pets prove they can be a serious band when they want to be.
“Ya-Ya-Ya”, “Cement Shoes”, and “Dig a Hole” are all extremely solid. The
closing track, “I am Ed Sullivan”, was a bit weird but felt a lot more
structured and deliberate than the weirdness from side A.
-- Roy Blumenfeld