Harpoon in the Night by The Twinkles

{Originally published in the C. W. Post Pioneer. Growing tired of the hipster element on campus, and the demand that we review more things "most college newspapers do", I decided to review a non-existent indie band's album. I would later use the fictional guitarist Johnny McDane and bassist Frank Harmony in my film Shadowplay}

“I’m a bleeding boy with a black-belt in broken dreams”

And with that, Ditko Jones opens up the third album from his phenomenal band The Twinkles, Harpoon In The Night. I tend to avoid “hipster” bands that get raved about by Pitchfork.com and it’s brethren, and I didn’t much care for The Twinkles first two albums, the electronic drivel that was Heavy As Heaven, and the warbly Bright-Eyes-knockoff, Joyriders. But the album’s opening track, “The Stranger God”, kicks off a bizarre bluesy tone, like a piano bar on acid. Every track, with the exception of the instrumental “Disorder And Early Sorrow” by bassist Frank Harmony, is written by Ditko, whose new European techno-punk influence blazes out clearly on tracks like “Full Bodied Flames” and “Cushion Game”. Ditko’s groaning, moaning, almost monotone singing style is at it’s best on this album, as well as the screeching, Sonic Youth-esque guitars by Johnny McDane. The most touching point comes in the soft acoustic ballad “Bridged Out”, a song in which Ditko simultaneously deals with his addiction to prescription pills and promotes the free downloading of music online, as he claims he has “…already succeeded the best that I can/No longer need your f*cking money, man”. Sharing verses with Ditko on this track is the amazingly versatile Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond, who performs stunning vocal riffs reminiscent of Yoko Ono in John Lennon’s “Happy X-Mas (War Is Over)”. The album’s finale, “A Man And His Dog” is a twelve minute epic, sweeping from indie-electro-hardcore-alterna-folk, to violin-fused-trip-hop-jam-rock within the bat of an eye. What is to be admired most about The Twinkles, though, is not just Ditko’s ability to front a band while he is impaired with tone-deafness, but rather that every song on the album consists of only one or two chords, and rarely uses more than six different notes in it’s melody. If you can track down this album, I cannot recommend it enough. I promise you, The Twinkles will not end up being some obscure band 20 years down the line that you only listened to while you were in college because you wanted to be cool and stand out yet fit in so that you’ll have to explain to your kids why you were such a douche bag back then.