The Zolas – Tic Toc Tic [604, 2009]

listen: the zolas
try: MU
Label: 604  
watch: youtube
buy: 604records

tracklist:
1.You’re Too Cool ♪
2.The Great Collapse
3.Marlaina Kamikaze
4.Body Ash
5.Cab Driver
6.Marionettes
7.I’ve Got Leeches
8.These Days
9.You Better Watch Out
10.No Talking
11.Queen of Relax
12.Pyramid Scheme

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Vancouver cabaret pop, saloon swinging piano, Ben Folds influenced only a little darker in a Sarah Slean kind of way, indie but not quite indie (well, you get the point) duo Zach Gray and Tom Dobrzanski, otherwise known as The Zolas, have produced an album in Tic Toc Tic that does justice to their carnival-esque namesake. Like a meal at one of those fancy restaurants that most of us can’t afford, the offerings appear a little strange but go down fascinatingly smoothly. OK, so enough with the horrible similes and metaphors; Tic Toc Tic is an album with slick production and crafty songwriting so well put together that I would normally skip through and try desperately to erase from my memory before I was infected by some pop music form of gang green that would no doubt start with my ears and work its way through the rest of my unsuspecting body.

Problem is, Tic Toc Tic is one of those great little quasi-pop albums that you can’t help get hooked on akin to Hollerado’s Record in a Bag. Seriously, you can’t shake the damn thing. The Zola’s win you over slowly at every turn with the foreboding attack of leeches on “I’ve Got Leeches” as guitar, bass, and piano work to enhance the creep out factor, and for some of us that are quite fond of leeches the victory in finally having a tune to call our own. “The Great Collapse” hops along contrasting its cheery piano with a lyrical landscape of desolation and approaching apocalypse in a Ben Folds meets Wayne Coyne mold. “You’re Too Cool’s” waltzing piano carries us through Van City’s hipster scene with some contempt. Let’s face it, most of those kids wouldn’t be caught checking out this disc as it would be too (insert your own generic response here) for them. What they don’t know is that they’d be missing out on a decent little album.

The Zola’s Tic Toc Tic will be available from Lotus Child Music Inc. Nov. 3rd, 2009 just before they roll through town Nov. 12th for those in the Toronto area.
fazermagazine