Detachment Kit Of This Blood. Release Date : May 18, 2004. Label: Frenchkiss Records. Rating: Andy doesn't dig rating stuff. Okay before I even get into talking about the music, I'm going to talk about the CD artwork. Someone broke into his little sister's art supply drawer and went apeshit with the pencil crayons. It's childlike and ridiculous and so so much fun. Even the logo for Frenchkiss Records is scribbled on the back in scrawly pencil crayon. The lyrics and credits inside the big poster foldout, all pencil crayon. And on the back of the tray card, we are tempted by a challenge : "The twins have been captured! Now it is up to you to save them from Queen Beaktapus!" So while you listen to the adventuresome soundtrack provided by the Detachment Kit CD, you can whip out your pennies or poker chips or paper clips or whatever and play a little board game on the CD artwork. It's such a pleasantly home-done job, even beyond the hand-drawn aspect. You can easily see on the scans of the original drawings, the places where the artist cut out pieces of paper to cover up old bits and redraw things over top. It's sort of like Moby Dick meets 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea meets Lord of the Rings, and somewhere along the way, it looks like you get to visit Seattle. Anyhow, interactive music-related artwork - very cool. Commendations to the band right off the bat for this. I already knew I'd probably like this album. After seeing an explosive, impressive performance from them at New Music West 2003, and a loud, obbnoxious, engaging earlier album, I didn't see how they could fall off the rails too badly. And they did change, but the album is quite delightful. This one is more heavy and hard overall, but it's also more straighforward. The older album was full of weird, nonsensical stuff, and this one sounds a bit closer to being able to fit along the fringes of mainstream rock. I think that's kind of a good thing - it retains a uniqueness but allows itself to be approchable, which is pretty important for a band trying to break in. The start is surprising with just a trumpet intro. The lots of yelling, and interesting vocals that have a jumpy, "ha ha toldja so" quality to them. You can easily envision the band flying around the stage. There are big fat thikc drums and resonating, deep guitars. Everything hits huge but now and then, they chuck in a soft chiming tune, likely to surprise the heck outta you when they come back after. So it's great, all around. Lots to listen to and think about and play!! Song of choice : "Vanish or Vanquish" - it sounds so panicky and true. -Andy Scheffler Elsewhere Detachment Kit website Published : April, 2005.