Mates of State

You’ve gotta be on board with the whole concept to get the most from a Mates of State CD, and Team Boo, its third, is no exception to this. Mates of State is a married couple. The husband, Jason Hammel, plays shifty, spastic drums and sings his guts out, and the wife, Kori Gardner, plays the alternately beautiful and beautifully “honk”-ey Electone organ and sings her guts out. Their union is important to note because in name and in practice the band is about being mates. If you jump into the first song, “Ha Ha,” with both feet you feel it right away. The beautiful and fun Partridge Family vocals are thrown back and forth between the two in sprints. Each race is a tiny song, and within the song (and just about every song on the CD) is a series of tiny song-races carefully interlocked in crazy rhythm shifts and breathless jumps from one idea to the next.