It’s hard not to go overboard with the metaphors, but someone took diamond cutting tools and applied them to Mika Miko. The result? Bleached.
I always enjoyed Mika Miko, and seeing them at Nickel City was one of the better shows I’d attended, because there’s little better than playing NBA Jam while they’re yelling into telephones in the other room. So I was excited to hear what Jennifer and Jessica Clavin had been up to since then. It turns out they’ve been brought back from the experimental punked-up cliff, and are now best suited on a ticket with Brilliant Colors or the latest Go-Go’s reunion. Cheers.
I offer sympathy to Mika Miko fans because they were probably not expecting another twee-ish indie pop band, and I’m not going to try to polish what those fans will perceive to be a turd. But for the rest of you, this is the moment you’ve been waiting for. Songs such as “Dead Boy” have backing vocals that will delight Beat Happening/Marine Research fans.
Power pop fans will enjoy “Dreaming Without You.” Mika Miko hangers on might appreciate “When I Was Yours,” although it’s much more noisy than experimental. There’s too much cohesion in the music for you to be able to have your head hurt. Sorry. That’s how I felt when the Vitamin C record released.
If you want the ’80s movie montage song, listen to “Searching Through the Past.” Surely there is a clean house or criminal caught or rare Cabbage Patch Kid procured somewhere thanks to that track.
All in all, Bleached joins a crowded field but rises above the Black Flag sound with a record whose keywords are quite dense.
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