The Joggers - With a Cape and a Cane (2005)

The Joggers have jangly, spikey, eastern tinged rock down. With a Cape and a Cane is a frantic, danceable, post punk tour through all that is missing from most rock these days. Three part harmonies, scathing lead guitars, inventive rhythms, and some funky driving bass lines. Okay maybe not the newest stuff to be done, but its always the execution that counts, and the Joggers pull it of with panache. The first song, Ziggurat Traffic, is the most eastern tinged song and also the least interesting, which at first made me regret buying the album. (After all, I only bought it based on the interesting review from Pitchfork, knowing nothing of the band) Not to fear though, the second song through the rest of the album is really quite amazing, recalling the complexity and drive of such disparate bands as Pavement, Fugazi and early Red Hot Chili Peppers. I swear, the guitarist barely plays a single chord the whole entire album. He just zings through crazy complex guitar work, similar in fashion to some of Les Savy Favs burners. All in all some of my favorite songs in 2005, and even 2006, have come from this album. Highlights are "Wicked Light Sleeper", "Yawning Brahmins", "White Madam", "Night of the Horsepills" and pretty much the whole second half of the album as most songs start of kind of spare and eventually break into these amazing crescendos with all sort of wailing and guitar trickery. As a bonus I added one of the best songs from their catalogue, "The Devil Wears Earplugs" from their first self titled album.