Caddywhompus, Caddywhompus EP

Okay, so I love that somebody finally used the word “Caddywhompus” for a band name (I mean, how can you not like a word that evokes both pimp-daddy Cadillacs and whupping up on somebody?), and am therefore predisposed to like this New Orleans-based (currently, anyway, but I’ll get to that) duo; shallow, yes, but I can’t help it, sorry. Not that it should really matter, mind you, because by all rights I ought to love these guys based on band pedigree alone. See, they may live in The Big Easy these days (for college, I’m told), but guitarist/vocalist Chris Rehm and drummer/vocalist Sean Hart also happen to be half of acclaimed Houston psych-shoegazers the Riff Tiffs.

Where the Riff Tiffs are all about the stand-and-sway, however, on their debut EP Caddywhompus are all about rocking you to the floor and kicking you to keep you there, smiling all the while. Opener “This is Where We Blaze the Nuggz” starts off a lie, lulling you in with softly atmospheric, shimmery guitars before punching you in the face with alternately heavy and fuzzed-out and jangly/noodly guitars. Throw in Rehm’s warbly, off-in-the-distance, Wolf Parade-esque vocals, and it starts looking like something special. And then, when the song transmutes into some kind of postmodern gypsy hoedown, with Rehm’s fingers literally dancing up and down the strings, it morphs from “hey, this is pretty neat” to “holy fuck, I need to hear that again.”

“Fun Times at Whiskey Bay” ups the ante, incorporating electronic screwing-around into a stuttering, chaotic, strange composition that trips blithely from crushing, pounding prog to light-hearted folk-pop (and back, naturally), sounding sinister and pretty as it goes. Closer “Untitled #7408” veers sweetly northward to Canada, mining an Arcade Fire-ish feel for some roaring, gorgeous, meandering-yet-driving drone-rock, and it works well enough to make you forget that, um, these folks are in some other band I like already, aren’t they?

With “Absinthesizer,” though… Here, ladies and gentlemen, comes The Crowning Moment. God damn, I love the way that guitar sounds. Zeppelin stomp + Queens of the Stone Age-esque riff + Hart’s thundering John Bonham drums + Rehm’s warbly vocals + random jaunty melody + reprise of the stomp = total fucking badness. And they do it all in a minute and twenty seconds.

And hey, you want to hear the best part? You don’t need to take my word for any of the above — you can download the four-song EP yourself, for absolute-freakin’ free, from the band’s Website (heck, it’s pretty much the only thing on their Website). Go there, right-click, and save; trust me, you won’t be sorry.