Gone Banana

Brainchild of remarkably talented Seattle songwriter/producer/multi-instrumentalist Erin Birgy, Mega Bog serves as a loosely knit collective of musicians bringing Birgy's restrained, sophisticated pop songs to life. Along with playing in a handful of other bands, Birgy issued multiple lower-stakes Mega Bog albums, working alone or with help on various cassette and CD-R releases and playing D.I.Y. tours across the land. Gone Banana will most likely be an introduction point to Mega Bog's sound for many, and there could be no better starting point than this fully formed distillation of the project's various muses. The songs bound along with a lilting but mysterious feel, blending the music-school academia of high-gloss acts like Steely Dan and the Blue Nile with fuzzy home-recording production that adds a level of distance to Birgy's soft, commanding croon. Prominent saxophone on many tracks by Jacob Zimmerman juxtaposes the darkly psychedelic feel of songs like "Cologne in the Night" with a profoundly smooth atmosphere. Somewhere between D.I.Y. experimentalism and slick musicianship, Gone Banana achieves a strong foothold in a strange, almost unnameable type of mood, one that lingers softly for a while after the album comes to a close. ~ Fred Thomas