- 30 Music
- Dark Side of the Cop
- Joel Simundich
- 2006
We told them not to, but they did it anyway: the cartridges are fried
in a thick grey plastic heap, oozing bright neon streaks of high scores
and 1-UPS. Now Dark Side of the Cop romp heavy on River City Ransom,
painted with that static screen in pixilated shades. Oh, and the oven’s
absolutely fucked.
Attributed to Marco Panella, with the accompanying assistance of Joe Weisenthal and Tyler Gibbons, Dark Side of the Cop are a bright diversion from their usual projects - The Daytona and Red Heart the Ticker - and their day jobs - Weisenthal has co-written and co-produced two musicals in Austin, Texas, and Gibbons is a professional bassist and composer from Philadelphia. Apart from this, little else has been provided by Dark Side of Cop in terms of press information: just a couple of guys having a good time, and doing a damn good job of that too. From what their website details, this release is the first half of a narrative dramatizing the lead character’s search for a girl he grew up with, and captures his journey from Detroit to California to find her.
In “Detroit (Prelude),” the sun shines down in a warm Colecovision tinge of orange and red, as acoustic guitar and shakers tremble in a predawn hymn. Straight into “Stuck in the Darkness,” Tyler Gibbons sings with a faint semblance of David Bazan - mid-melody, the song structure takes a low bass line onto a different route, picked up on the guitar pop of sugary “Shaky Little Rules.” All playful lyrics and the electronic-drenched percussion, “Childhood” turns the formula on its head with an otherwise straight-forward pop sensibility.
“Don’t Be Jealous” stands out with its serious tone and atmosphere - only a restrained piano line and a voice reaching out, soon punctured by a fractured drum loop. Tracks like “Paradise Lost and Found” and “Fool in the Hills” demonstrate their convincing delivery and closing tracks “Sugar Farmer” and “Little Things” present some of the most memorable, pretty lines on the album.
Music aside, they’ve got a nifty-little-website over at www.darksideofthecop.com , with artwork created by Claire Nereim and streaming samples of each track. Check this album out; it’s definitely worth the price of admission and, in the most literal use of the term, criminally underappreciated.