SNMNMNM: Crawl Inside Your Head (Unschooled)
release: September 18, 2007
style: smarty geek happy indie rock
similar: They Might Be Giants, Apples in Stereo
rating: *** i got a fever and there's only one prescription: more tuba. That's what the obviously unusually named SNMNMNM has got, though i bet that they get people in the crowd shouting "more tuba" all the time. Tuba solos will be expected here but the amplified Yamaha tuba acts as the bass and if you weren't listening closely it's undetectable. The brass is prominent in "For All I Know" and a few others, when the quartet adds trumpets and sax. "Back to School" is like a late 1950s slow ballad played through Weezer. Any unconventional instrumentation that can pull that off scores a big A. -Kenyon