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Review Mon Nov 27 2006
Quick Review: Mucca Pazza gives fans "mooosic" to love
With Chicago's one-and-only "circus punk marching band" hitting the studios to record their first ever EP Mucca Pazza: A Little Marching Band, one might fear that the spectacle might be lost once it gets burned to disc, but not so. What this nearly 30-member group of past and present marching band meets rock explosion creates in their 10-track offering is pure fun. Sure, you might have seen them on Conan last spring, or at Lollapalooza last summer (if you got there early enough), but if you just don't have any live Mucca Pazza to enjoy, this EP really brings it to the ole think box between your ears.
Friends of the band's MySpace page might be familiar with tracks like the traditional Balkan cocek "Coat Czech" (ha!) or the band's piece original "Alarm!", but the album gives much more Mucca bang for your Mucca buck. With instrumentation reminiscent of Tom Waits' big top-like creepy/wonderful circus performance, tunes like "Dirge" (is that a saw I hear?) and "Carosel" make you twist in your chair, just waiting for the bearded lady and bat boy to saunter past. More marching band-like "Nod to Magoo" and the Dick Dale influenced "Surf" make you tap your feet and even wiggle that booty in your chair.
Their work is well-orchestrated and well-played, certainly a nod to their enthusiasm for work that could have come off as a rumpus room side project. Mucca Pazza just can't be categorized easily, and as their moniker "circus punk marching band" implies, they're truly a little bit of everything. If you were ever into musicals, punk music, instrumental compositions for cartoons, surf rock, traditional tunes from the old country, or, yeah, marching bands, this is an album you'll enjoy. You can pick up Mucca Pazza: A Little Marching Band right now at your neighborhood Reckless Records, or online.