I saw Abe Vigoda open for Vampire Weekend a year ago. Wait, that was exactly a year ago. March 26, 2010, according to the setlist that I snagged.
Weird. Anyway, I saw these guys a year ago, and I don’t remember too much from their set, other then that my friend and I couldn’t stop making fun of the huge vein the singer had popping out of his neck.
My other connection with this band is through Los Campesinos! At Lollapalooza in 2009, Gareth Campesinos! was wearing an Abe Vigoda shirt. If a band is good enough for him, they’re good enough for me. Well, that’s not entirely true, as I can’t stand Xiu Xiu, his favorite band. Okay stalker mode is over now. The dude wouldn’t even accept my friend request on Facebook. Time to move on.
Enough distractions. It’s Abe Vigoda time.
Think Surfer Blood meets No Age. I love Surfer Blood. I do not love No Age. There’s plenty of the Surfer Blood-esque ’60s style surf-pop throughout Skeleton, but there’s also that obnoxious distortion and static that I’m not a big fan of. I’ve managed to move past it with Abe Vigoda, though. They don’t let noise take over the album, using it sparingly and effectively. I guess I can handle it in small doses.
Skeleton is made up of short, powerful bursts of energy. Every song on the album is under four minutes, which means even the mediocre ones don’t go on for too long; not that there are too many of those. Live-Long might be my favorite track on the record, exhibiting what lots of the good songs on Skeleton have, a fast tempo, a good beat, slightly distorted, jangly guitars, and a sound unique to Abe Vigoda.
Swole Ear 
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