Are You Sleepy?

The Gerbils: Will Westbrook (vocals, guitar, crystal calibrator, tape manipulation, bells); John D'Azzo (vocals, guitar, bass, piano, air organ, drums); Scott Spillane (vocals, guitar, bass).
It's hard to picture a band more aptly named than The Gerbils, for if those fuzzy little creatures could make music, this is what it would sound like; chirpy, catchy, three-chord, lo-fi pop. The Gerbils, members of the touring ensembles of Olivia Tremor Control and Neutral Milk Hotel, even have the sort of nasal, high-pitched voices you'd expect from cute little rodents. And, in what seems to be some sort of bizarre Elephant 6 contractual requirement, they include the obligatory synthesizer/space-out track smack dab in the middle of the disc. From that point on the album makes a left turn and heads to regions south of cuddle-core. All in all, ARE YOU SLEEPY is more of the infectious pop that you've come to expect from the increasingly incestuous stable of Elephant 6 artists.