Pitchfork

[Posted Thursday, September 11th, 2003 04:30:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

Whether you're a conservative or a liberal, a cat dander or a ragweed, a Shark or a Jet, I think there's at least one thing we can all agree upon: in modern American society, it's very, very cool to leave people unsure if you mean what you say. The Thrill Jockey website reports that Trans Am, masters of musical parody/ homage, are gearing up to tour these amber waves of grain, leaving in their scorched wake a fan base who can't decide whether they're supposed to laugh and be in on the joke, or to scoff and risk missing the point. Nervous half-smiles, pseudo-smirks and equivocal judgments ("I think Trans Am's pretty good." "Are you kidding?" "They're ridiculous!" "I mean they're kind of good but..." "Ye-yeah, that's what I meant, sort of...") will mark the way they came.

Trans Am have been together for nigh on seven years now, handily exploiting our fear of ingenuousness by couching their musical adventures in such winkingly ironic tones that we'll accept pretty much any weirdness they send down the pike, for fear of cynics saying we don't get it. After several albums that appropriated such diverse genres as salsa, electropop, Krautrock, new wave, funk and rumbling techno-- filtering it all through Trans Am's post-rock sensibility, canned Casios, arcade noises, vocoder vox and tongued cheeks-- they released TA, which boiled down cock-rock, hair-metal and a Brazilian dance music style called Funk Carioca to their most absurd and overblown essences. The result was either a postmodern comment upon kitsch and the cultural values that could support such styles, an unlistenable mess that failed to surpass the genres it parodied, or just plain weird (depending on who you asked). Decide for yourself at any of the following dates (all shows except Carrboro with A.R.E. Weapons and The Movies):

09-12 Brooklyn, NY - Luxx
09-19 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle (w/ Dalek)
09-20 Columbia, SC - New Brookland Tavern (w/ From Safety to Where)
09-21 Charlotte, NC - Casbah
09-22 Atlanta, GA - Echo Lounge
09-23 Jacksonville, FL - Rock and Roll Pizza
09-24 Miami, FL - I/O
09-25 Gainesville, FL - Common Grounds
09-26 Orlando, FL - The Social
09-27 Tallahassee, FL - Club Downunder
09-29 New Orleans, LA - Twiropa
09-30 Houston, TX - The Proletariat (w/ Radio Berlin)
10-01 Austin, TX - Emo's
10-02 Dallas, TX - Gypsy Tea Room
10-03 Little Rock, AR - Vinos
10-04 Memphis, TN - Hi Tone Cafe