Update: Mechanical Boy Review + CD Release Tonight

Again, we are all about the J.I.T. reviewing, and today is no exception… Just slapped up a review of Mechanical Boy‘s new album, Play Along, on the site, which is damned good timing considering that the Richmond-bred crew will be officially releasing the disc tonight, Fri., October 25th, up at Fitzgerald’s.

The show was scheduled for way back in the middle of last month, but that little storm thing we had interfered, for obvious reasons, and the M.B. boys had to postpone. Which may well be the one & only silver lining I’ve seen yet from Ike, because it gave my lazy, no-electricity-having ass time to actually listen to the damn CD and try to say something relatively coherent about Mechanical Boy’s “new” direction into retro-flavored pop-rock. See here to get my take on it.

Now, the review might come off a teensy bit negative, but I actually do like the disc — just tried to be honest about where I felt there were flaws in the whole thing, y’know? And as always, it’s all subjective. The ever-cool David Cobb over at Houston Calling has a review of the CD up right now, too, and Chris Gray at the Houston Press reviewed it last month while most folks were too busy battening down the hatches or bailing out water to do much reading, so I’d fully suggest sampling all the various opinions out there. This one’s just me, so take with lots of salt. (And plus, both David & Chris are darn good writers.)

Again, though, I do like the album, generally speaking, and I think the band’s probably mindblowing live, so tonight’s show definitely looks to be worth it. Along with Mechanical Boy, hyper-earnest guys Thee Armada are playing, as well, and while I know it’s probably anathema to “serious” music fans, dammit, I enjoyed the heck out of 2007’s The New You, which showcases the band’s Jimmy Eat World-meets-No Knife sound.

I’m not real familiar with openers The Last Place You Look, Dallas’s Veloura, & The Tastydactyls, unfortunately, although I’ve heard the first of the three are pretty good and the name of the third just makes me smile.