There's a mighty wind blowin' in the underground, and with it come
the sounds of quirky folk noise sung with the delicate innocence of a
schoolgirl. It's blowin' all around, you know, threatening to heave the
latest '80s/New Wave/No Wave comeback right out of the water. When all
this hot-pink '80s-revivalist crap has passed, in its place creepy folk
music will likely take hold. Records like Amps for Christ's The
People at Large — released on the ultra-hip, experimental, obscure 5RC
label — prove it. What better way to rebel against the mainstream
electrified-rock return than to turn to the acoustic strings and sad
arrangements of folk? And then add a hefty dose of weirdness. C'mon, let's put
the hip back in hippie. In 23 sometimes-instrumental tracks, The
People at Large artfully combines acoustic plucking, international-sized
doses of sitar, bongo beats, fuzzy distortion, experimental beeps and bleeps,
fragile coos, and panicked screams, all of which is held together by a common
anti-war and likeminded political stance. If you choose your music to reaffirm
your separation from anything remotely mainstream, this is your bag.
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