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Mammal Club: “Otter”

Posted by The Wounded Jukebox in Alternative, Indie on June 23, 2011

During my freshman year of high school, I played tuba in the marching band. And believe it or not, it was a pretty cool experience. Granted, I quit the instrument and the band after that year, but during the span of my introduction to high school, I marched around on a field in uniform and a 45 pound foghorn on my shoulders. There was always this group of other players that were collectively and dismissively called the “Pit Crew”. They were the 10 or so odd people who played the bells, chimes, xylophones and cowbells: all the things you couldn’t really carry around in formation. And because they were often seen as the bottom of the totem pole in terms of band hierarchy, my impressions of such instruments has been vastly skewed. On “Otter” by the Everything Everything/Born Ruffians hybrid Mammal Club, the xylophone is featured as the central pivoting point in the whirlwind tune. Debris in the form of randomized vocal stylings and and haphazard snare swirl around, but the xylophone makes the most sense of it all, keeping a steady pace. Perhaps the Pit Crew did more for us than we ever realized. But I’ll never know. Because I’m never going near a tuba again. Things weigh a ton.