The category of college rock was created to pigeonhole the kind of self-conscious pop rock that became popular with the explosion of college radio in the 1980s. Dinosaur Jr, 10,000 Maniacs, The Pixies, Throwing Muses, even Weezer: We don't necessarily discover these bands in college, but we tend to appreciate them best in the context of college. Then we graduate, and the term college rock becomes pejorative. Describing The Slats' latest album "Pick It Up" as college rock works well -- but it's because the band utilizes all the best tropes of the genre.
The Slats, a three-piece with members from Minneapolis, Minn. and Iowa City, Iowa, sound like a marriage of Mudhoney's fuzzed-out guitars with the tight pop arrangements of The Cars. That is to say, The Slats sound like the college-rock ideal. Furthermore, it sounds like a band not trying to amuse anyone but itself, making the group hip (or annoying, depending on your maturity).
Brian Cox's singing (not the character actor, but the vocalist, guitarist and principle songwriter for The Slats) often sounds like The Cars' Benjamin Orr on "Just What I Needed." However, he opts for the verbose lyrical approach that typically distinguishes college rock (and which often makes it unlistenable). Surprisingly, Cox is able to make his logorrhea extremely convincing (College kids use words like logorrhea). In one of the better songs on the album, "The Diabetic Coma," he is able to sing lyrics like "I'm as serious as a maladaptive pancreas/you need a need a needle to regulate this" and make you believe the phrase is catchy.
Another lyrical gem is the refrain of the ballad "Ice Queen," in which Cox offers the romantic metaphor "You're the Ice Queen/I'm a glacier." Think about it, kids! Such lyrics, sung with Cox's affected melancholy, seem designed to bait the fun police. But in college rock, the art is about suggestion of intelligence rather than assertion of intelligence. If this is what you dig, you'll dig Cox's songwriting.
Cox's dirty guitar is matched alternately with Jon Hansen's second guitar or bass. Playing over the decent drumming of Mark Tietjen, the two guitarists form a nifty dueling duo, using minimal technique to manufacture a maximum number of pop hooks. The song "TEENA" is the album's obvious guilty pleasure, a track which sounds unabashedly like a lost Cars single. But The Slats manage the ironic power-pop number in their own style, adding an anchoring bass line reminiscent of Matt Sharp along with dissonant garnish รก la Sonic Youth.
In other moments, The Slats go for instrumental gusto, like in "Algorithms & Arithmetic," which suggests the cacophonic breakdowns of the Descendents. Other attempts at non-pop fall flat. "Mouth Like A Shogun" sounds like an undercooked cut from a noise band that came up with the name of the song first. (If it's supposed to achieve this for purposes of irony, it gets a B-.)
Ultimately, "Pick It Up" does not offer a mind-melting new approach to college (an unofficial genre of) rock, but it does feature a gamut of successful emulations. People who already like Wire, Weezer or early Wilco will find this album worth a listen simply for the bouts of nostalgia it induces. But that's not to denigrate The Slats' original effort. Cox's distinctive vocals have the potential to carry the band into a bright future, and the twin-guitar garage rock sound isn't going to die anytime soon, despite the rumors. The Slats are a young band that is going to get better - "Pick It Up" suggests these college rockers will graduate on time.
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