Rademacher
Stunts
Independent (2007)

by Nicholas Nocketback

What Happens When Music Gets Too Dangerous? …Cue the Stunt Band

If after listening to this album four times in a row you still don’t like it, I’LL refund your money. I’m not as hip as my contemporary big city indie paper music critic counterparts, so I will not create some “sounds-like-shish kebab” sandwiching Rademacher in between Pavement and Minus the Bear. Nevertheless, I will say this: listening to Stunts is like hearing The Cars for the first time in 1977 or seeing The Talking Heads at the Greek Theatre during their “Speaking in Tongues” tour. That is to say, they are on the apex of what will be a downward rocket toward Nike commercials, Miller High Life sponsored tours, and an inevitable meet and greet with Alan Greenspan. Enjoy them now while you still can for 3 bucks at Tokyo Garden; because, dear friends, soon enough it’ll be 3000 yen at Kyoto Menagerie.
I wouldn’t call Rademacher an indie pop band, but at any one of their myriad shows I’ve seen happy patrons sing along and hollaback as if it were karaoke night. Stunts is 33.9 minutes or 30.9 megabytes of merriment.
“Arkansas” is the first of nine tracks that is indicative of the band as a whole: dance ready, head nodding bass line cascading into a poignant and enchanting riff laden piece of work. This song, like the record in general, is a fun, simply sophisticated combination of poppy grooves, Cars keys, and plaintive, introspective lyrics. Try not chanting “this love is not the same” 3 minutes and 35 seconds into it; I dare you.
“Machines” presents us with a boogie arranged, three to tango radio friendly chant along that’s sure to be a hit from Sunset Strip to Motel Drive.
“If U Got Some Magic” is one of everyone’s favorites and reminds us why the piano—used correctly—separates indie rock bands from the butt-rock metal ones. Although I can’t say I agree with spelling words like a text message, but Malcolm Sosa’s song writing is just brilliant enough to allow it.
“What Yr Used To Back At Home” is a track that seems immediate, beseeching, and lamenting. It’s got a mind of its own.
“On Yr Marks” is a delightful mélange of blues and country influences, that, combined with Sosa’s lyrics about the idyllic, the impossible, make you both melancholic and hopeful at once… “and for a moment you grow older and wise…it’s not hard to forget who you are.”
“Today Is Different” is a work that I’ve heard Harvey Keitel wakes up to daily. It’s a tune that from second one casts a tiny net of hope around your midsection and tugs gently, lovingly. This song will make Chris Carrabba reevaluate his entire catalogue.
I will write my description of the title track, “Stunts,” as if I were writing a big budget movie blurb. Malcolm Sosa as Mason Jennings in Stunts—This Time It’s Personal. Hailed as the next IT kid, Sosa’s voice on this this track is black and beautiful like Wesley Snipes in Blade II. And “Letter From Fresno, CA” is just one of those songs I don’t want to muddy up with my sophomoric prose.
Listen to all these exceptional tracks on the new album by checking out myspace.com/rademacher or radradrad.com.