Cover bands

I bought Of Montreal's "Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?" and Dr. Dog's latest, "We All Belong," with the intention of reviewing one or both discs in this space. But I've yet to find my way past the packaging of these albums.

Dr. Dog's was nothing too out of the ordinary, constructed mainly of cardboard with a hard plastic inset tray. Great! The artwork is probably too busy, what with their apparent dollar and tobacco theme, but I can forgive that, too. The problem I have is the accompanying 14"x19" fold-out lyrics sheet/poster. Only 1/3 of the sheet is taken up by lyrics. The rest is a large drawing of a Southern belle with a moneybook and an apparent duck in a basket on her back. Oh, and her head is actually the head of George Washington from the $1 bill. Cute. Symbolic. Unnecessary. To their credit they include dotted lines around the drawing so you can cut it out and display it in your office cubicle, I guess. But for those of us who don't want to put out that much effort (like me) and who like to keep all of their CD pieces together (also me), this sheet, when folded up and slid back into the sleeve, causes too much thickness and heft. I mean, I'm not getting sore from carrying it around or anything, but...

Turns out, Dr. Dog ain't got nothin' on the elaborate packaging tip. That gold medal goes to Of Montreal. I guess it's supposed to be a kaleidoscope theme of some sort, but jesus fuck, you should see this thing. First of all, you remove a plastic slip cover. Immediately, the folded-down side flaps partially open. Then a kaleidoscope-colored piece of paper falls out. That piece has the recording info on the back. But you can't close the CD case because the four flaps stay semi-erect at all times. Soooooo... to store this disc, you put the roundish liner notes on top of the CD. Then you fold down the flaps. Then you put the clear plastic slip back on it. Now you've got a perfectly dangerous disc to take along on a drive, and you'll definitely run off the road trying to get the CD out and in your player. (Am I the only one who still listens to CDs in my car?)

All I'm saying is that upon purchasing these discs, upload them to your iTunes post-haste. Or just buy the albums online. Or my co-blogger would tell you to get them free through file-sharing. But I recommend buying them outright because they're new bands and the odds of them becoming the next Wilco or Arcade Fire are unlikely. Possible, but unlikely. Assuming the music is good, anyway.